Cricket / Andrew Hughes / 07 January 2009 / Leave a comment Bet Now

With wicket-keepers Brendon McCullum, Kumar Sangakkara and Ms Dhoni amongst the best and most explosive one-day batsmen in the world, Andrew Hughes looks at how a certain "Gilly" was responsible for changing the role of the wicket-keeper forever.

Brendon McCullum's half-ton in the second Twenty20 against the West Indies was a down payment on the kind of onslaught this bleached-haired bludgeoner trades in. When he gets going, his whiplash upper cuts over third man, his lashes through point and booming howitzers over midwicket are the epitome of raw power and timing. All this and he's a pretty good keeper too.

In fact, McCullum is just one of several glove men charged with opening the one-day innings these days. Kumar Sangakkara, Kamran Akmal and Matt Prior have all had a bash and if it weren't for the dream opening pair of Virender Sehwag and Gautum Gambhir, Mahendra Dhoni might be doing the same for India. But why should this be? Why are wicket-keepers so often booted up the order in the shorter game?

I blame Romesh Kaluwitherana

It was 1996. The world was younger then, more innocent. Nobody had heard of Kevin Pietersen; Shane Warne still had all his hair and Twenty20 cricket was the stuff of science fiction. Back then the new fifteen over fielding restriction was the most exciting thing on the menu. In the World Cup of that year, the Sri Lankans took devastating advantage of the new regulations by promoting wicket-keeper Romesh Kaluwitherana to open with Sanath Jayasuriya. His mission was a straightforward one. Hit the ball as far as you can, repeatedly. He didn't score big but he got his runs quickly. The era of the pinch-hitter had dawned.

Attack of the sloggers

Pinch hitters became the must-have cricket accessory of the era and if your team didn't have one then you were less hip than David Lloyd on the seafront at Blackpool. Like handbags or false breasts, they came in all shapes and sizes. But more often than not, they were wicket-keepers. First it was the likes of hopeful hitters like Kaluwitherana and Barbadian Courtney Browne. Since then, more skilled batsmen-keepers have filled the role. Glove men make natural pinch hitters. They spend most of their careers coming in with four or five wickets left and under pressure to score quick runs. And whereas the strain of opening the batting and keeping wicket may be too much in Test cricket, it is easier to sustain in the fifty over version.

Ch...ch...changes

But the pinch hitting keeper was just one manifestation of a more fundamental change in the world of bat and ball. Not so many years ago, all a chap needed to keep his place in the team was a soft pair of gloves, a quirky hat and the ability to leap like a salmon from a crouching start. Of course, there had been keepers who could bat. Indeed, wicket keepers are in many ways ideal batsmen since they spend so much of their time in the middle reading pitches and bowlers. But a consensus had grown up over the decades that wicket-keeping was a specialist skill and runs were a bonus. One man changed all that forever.

Gilly

Capable of blasting hundreds from number seven, worthy of a place in the top six of any team in any era, Adam Gilchrist was a monster of a wicket-keeper. After Gilchrist, nothing would ever be the same again. Coaches began to look at their keepers in a new light. They began to demand more: more fifties, more centuries and no let-up behind the stumps. Wicket-keepers would henceforth no longer be considered specialists; they were all-rounders. Of course, Gilchrist was a rare talent. But we shouldn't expect him to be the last of his kind. Sangakkara, Dhoni and McCullum are wicket-keepers in the Gilchrist mould and there will be others.

Mount Tongariro

McCullum is the one modern keeper most often compared to Gilchrist, due mainly to his explosive batting style. He has yet to impress himself on the psyche of the West Indies in the current one day series, but like a simmering volcano, he's bound to go off soon. He's [4.5] favourite to be top Black Caps batsman in the 3rd match at Wellington on Wednesday. And though the West Indies hold a one-nil lead in the series with three to play, they remain comparatively friendless in the match odds market for the next ODI on [2.42] with the home side on [1.62]