All original content on this site is © 2004 - 2006 CAITE Inc. All borrowed images and articles remain copyrighted to their owners and no claim of ownership is made.

Baseball makes play for slugger Gilchrist

Source: The Australian - April 7, 2005

WITH his exceptional record and a growing reputation, cricket fans are now beginning to wonder if Adam Gilchrist is as good as Don Bradman.

But the question that may soon be asked is: can the Australian batsman be as good as Babe Ruth?

So impressed have recruiting agents from the Boston Red Sox baseball team been with the 33-year-old's batting prowess that they have made an offer to the Australian vice-captain to assess his skills.

Gilchrist has played baseball only once, as a 14-year-old in Lismore, but the Red Sox - the original home of batting legend Ruth - have told his manager, Steve Atkinson, they are prepared to have the wicketkeeper personally assessed in Australia.

Interest from the US club was triggered by Australian Olympic baseball coach John Deeble, who is also first-base coach for the Red Sox.

As a recruiting agent for the team throughout the Pacific, Deeble sent a video of Gilchrist's devastating batting performances to the club.

The Red Sox hierarchy were particularly impressed with his ability to regularly and effortlessly clear the boundary with clean hitting, the equivalent of a home run in baseball.

Any trial is likely to take place in his home town of Perth, where Gilchrist would face state pitchers and a pitching machine in front of talent scouts flown out from the US.

Presently on holiday with his family in Lismore, Gilchrist was unavailable for comment, but Atkinson said no decision had yet been made whether to accept the offer of a baseball trial.

"His prime focus was on the forthcoming Ashes series," Atkinson said.

However, the agent claimed that Gilchrist was pleased to receive the offer.

"Adam has taken this as a compliment.

"There are any number of collegiate players in America who would cut their non-pitching arm off to get a call from a major league team saying we would like to come down and have a look at you.

"Cricket remains his No. 1 priority, and the approach may not come to anything, but it is genuine. If we did anything it would have to fit in with his cricket commitments.

"But it is not pub talk or someone daydreaming. It is this guy's job to identify players and he likes the look of Adam. Baseball people have been saying for years that Adam would be suitable to the sport."

- MALCOLM CONN