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World XI not true Test: Gilly

Source: The Australian - October 3, 2005

ADAM GILCHRIST is excited about matching his skills against two of the best teams ever assembled, but has questioned why the Super Series matches in Melbourne and Sydney over the next fortnight have been given official one-day and Test status.

While endorsing the top-ranked team playing a World XI as a spectacular concept, Australia's vice-captain claims the sanctity of international cricket should be preserved.

"I'm really looking forward to these games but I don't think they should be accredited," Gilchrist said in Melbourne yesterday. "Test matches are about representing your country. We (Australia) are doing that. They (the World XI) are not."

To give the International Cricket Council's inaugural Super Series added credibility, the game's governing body decided to recognise the events, a move strongly supported by Cricket Australia.

Gilchrist believes the concept of the best team playing the best of the rest could become another important jewel in the ICC's crown, along with the four-yearly World Cup and biennial Champions Trophy.

The one-day matches - to be played under Melbourne's Telstra Dome roof on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, and the six-day Super Test in Sydney, which begins next week - will become part of the players' international records.

However, Gilchrist feels it is wrong the matches should be feted in such a way when the revolution that defined the modern game, Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket from 1977-79, continues to be ignored.

"We can all sit back and realise how important World Series Cricket was to cricket now because of where it took the game," Gilchrist said.

"We've got one-dayers, the players got a bit of a voice, the game's more professional. It became a real entertainment industry, which is what it is now.

"Yet, still those records are not recognised when an event like this is, even though this is a wonderful event."

The greatest victim of such unrecognised achievements is Dennis Lillee.

Since his retirement in 1984, Lillee has been listed with 355 Test wickets. But there is a strong argument to suggest the total should really be 458. Outside Test cricket, he claimed 24 wickets during the 1971-72 Rest of The World tour and 79 in World Series Cricket.

While WSC was a privately run series during a dispute involving television rights, the Rest of The World tour was organised by the Australian Cricket Board to replace a tour by apartheid-split South Africa. Somewhat ironically, that World XI tour has been used to promote this series, with this World XI team director and chairman of selectors Sunil Gavaskar a member of the 1971-72 team.

"I don't feel so strongly that it's putting me off. It's a very exciting concept and will be a terrific showpiece event for world cricket," Gilchrist said.

"It (the Super Series) is an exhibition but I don't see anyone in these two teams playing with that mentality.

"It's going to be absolute, full on cricket, no doubt about it, but if it needs official status to get that, I'm not sure.

"I believe that Test match status is country versus country for a lot of the historical reasons of where the game's come from."

Gilchrist feels the same about the sell-out tsunami relief match at the MCG on January 10 this year between a World XI and an Asian XI.

"I didn't think that should have international status either because it wasn't country versus country," he said.

"Given the circumstances of that game I didn't think it needed any extra promotion or reason at all."

The recent England tour was doubly poor for Gilchrist - Australia lost the Ashes and he had a particularly lean time, managing 181 runs at less than 23 without a half-century in five Tests.

While surprised at the extent of criticism during the series, particularly from some former players, Gilchrist believes there is a silver lining of sorts because of the enormous interest it created.

"In the two weeks I've been home the general feeling from the public has been that it was just so positive for cricket," he said. "Put the result aside, people who usually don't watch cricket were up until 3am glued to their television sets.

"As a result, the interest in this series is amazing."

Gilchrist said he had not encountered such a relentless bowling assault during his 73-Test career.

"It has never been that sustained," he said. "They just bowled as a pack. There was no let-up. And again, it's going to be like that over the next two weeks."

Previously the best attack he experienced was Pakistan's Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Shoaib Akhtar early in his career.

"England had guys who did their jobs perfectly. They just didn't let up at all," Gilchrist said.

After feeling he had come to terms with the rapid swing of Andrew Flintoff, Gilchrist claimed he became "too excited" facing other bowlers, allowing Matthew Hoggard to trap him leg before wicket in his last two innings.

- MALCOLM CONN