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Craig HillWell batted Gilly but will your new technique go the way of the aluminium bat?
April 30th 2007 01:27
When Adam Gilchrist saluted the crowd to bring up his sparkling hundred in the World Cup final on Sunday morning he reserved a special piece of praise for his WA mentor Bob Meuleman. Bob had apparently given Gilchrist the suggestion of using half a squash ball in his glove to improve his grip.
It is impossible to write an article of this nature without taking anything away from Gilchrist's innings and his talent in taking apart the Sri Lankan attack. So here goes;
An innings of 149 off 104 balls is an amazing effort in anybody’s language let alone when you’ve been struggling for runs and in a World Cup final at the end of a long drawn out tournament. Well done.
The fact that Gilchrist made these runs with the assistance of a squash ball tucked in his glove shouldn’t taint the innings but it does. If bowlers are unable to even add a band aid for a split fingernail on their bowling hand because it aids performance then why should batsmen be able to put foreign objects in their glove to gain an advantage?
Just ask Ricky Ponting about his “No, its great, seriously it does nothing though” episode with the graphite backing on his Kookaburra bat and you will find that all is not what it seems. Surely it is for the batsman through natural means to control his endeavours with the bat, not to add squash balls or graphite backing. If Gilly sweats too much and his gloves move around the handle then deal with it. Let's not have cricket go the same way as golf where technology or gimmicky add ons seem to characterise the game.
Instead of bumbling through the bad light/wet weather rules the ICC should step in and restrict what batsmen can and can’t do with their batting gloves, after all bowlers have been living with these restrictions for years.
After that diatribe Well done Australia and well done Ricky Ponting for some fine captaincy and an overwhelming World Cup victory.
It is impossible to write an article of this nature without taking anything away from Gilchrist's innings and his talent in taking apart the Sri Lankan attack. So here goes;
An innings of 149 off 104 balls is an amazing effort in anybody’s language let alone when you’ve been struggling for runs and in a World Cup final at the end of a long drawn out tournament. Well done.
The fact that Gilchrist made these runs with the assistance of a squash ball tucked in his glove shouldn’t taint the innings but it does. If bowlers are unable to even add a band aid for a split fingernail on their bowling hand because it aids performance then why should batsmen be able to put foreign objects in their glove to gain an advantage?
Just ask Ricky Ponting about his “No, its great, seriously it does nothing though” episode with the graphite backing on his Kookaburra bat and you will find that all is not what it seems. Surely it is for the batsman through natural means to control his endeavours with the bat, not to add squash balls or graphite backing. If Gilly sweats too much and his gloves move around the handle then deal with it. Let's not have cricket go the same way as golf where technology or gimmicky add ons seem to characterise the game.
Instead of bumbling through the bad light/wet weather rules the ICC should step in and restrict what batsmen can and can’t do with their batting gloves, after all bowlers have been living with these restrictions for years.
After that diatribe Well done Australia and well done Ricky Ponting for some fine captaincy and an overwhelming World Cup victory.
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Defending the indefensible
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Ponderous
Charles.
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