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O'Keeffe picks Gilly in top five

Source: The Sunday Telegraph - January 9, 2005

KERRY O'Keeffe, the respected ABC commentator, says Adam Gilchrist has entered the elite echelon of Australian cricket as one of the top five players the country has produced.

O'Keeffe, like the rest of cricket lovers across the nation, was spellbound last week watching Gilchrist blast 113 runs off 120 balls in an innings that included five sixes and 14 fours.

Gilchrist dominated his partnership with double century-maker Ricky Ponting, contributing 77 of their first 100 runs together.

O'Keeffe says Gilchrist's consistent match-winning displays deserve to have the keeper ranked alongside Sir Donald Bradman, Keith Miller, Dennis Lillee and Shane Warne as the top five players Australia has produced.

"He is simply peerless as a batsman/keeper and I'm not sure there has ever been a player in the history of the game who can change the complexion of a match so dramatically," O'Keeffe said.

"It's not often that a player of Ricky Ponting's calibre can be overshadowed when they are scoring a double century, but that's exactly what happened."

While Gilchrist was smashing the hapless Pakistan attack to all parts of the SCG, his family were listening to his innings on the radio at a caravan park at South West Rocks on the mid-north coast.

Gilchrist's brother Dean, a former Sydney first grader and Gordon club captain, revealed Adam was the only one missing from a family New Year holiday.

"We were sitting around the caravan park as a group and listening to the radio and were very entertained by Kerry O'Keeffe's commentary," Dean said.

"Mum wouldn't let dad watch it on the tele.

"She said 'you'll never get out of the chair, Stan!'

"But it was quite funny as Adam's immediate family nestled together in the park, and hearing other people listening to the radio as well.

"You'd hear people say things like: 'Gilchrist's just a legend' and, all the while, his immediate family were sitting there.

"It was quite funny when he got out because everyone just went back to what they were doing and little kids started their own games of cricket and they all wanted to be Adam Gilchrist."

If anything, that would have been a scene repeated right across the nation as Gilchrist enhances his reputation as the cricketer everyone wants to be.

"When Gilchrist got out, there was a hush among the crowd and that was because they wanted more," O'Keeffe said. "That's what a great entertainer does to you, leaves you wanting more.

"All the crowd at the SCG wanted was for Gilchrist to make an encore performance."

Gilchrist was once asked his philosophy on batting and he replied: "Just hit the ball."

According to Dean, he has always been a cricketer who has never died wondering.

"Adam has always been true to his philosophies on how the game should be played," Dean said.

"There was one time when Shaun Pollock had him thinking and he tried to temper his game, but that didn't last too long.

"It took some time for his confidence to develop. The innings in Hobart, when he won the Test in partnership with Justin Langer, was the day when he really felt at home.

"He doesn't actually go out to entertain people, he just goes out and bats the way he has always batted."

Not everyone was pleased.

"It was funny when he hit that six on the second last ball of the day to remain not out overnight," Dean said.

"Dad is still from the old school and he said: 'Why would he do that and not just try and remain not out?

"Adam's never going to die a sucker. He just gets on with whatever's in front of him."

Proving cricketers like Gilchrist are born, not made.

- ADAM HAWSE