[Redbacks]

Gilly comes in at number 4



'Sheez, look at that one!' - The Age - Melbourne'

After two years in Perth he had done enough for a call-up to the national one-day team. He batted in the middle order, until Mark Taylor's decline became unignorable and Gilchrist moved to the top, just seven weeks after taking over the gloves from Healy. That was in December 1997. South African players taunted him in Sydney, off-spinner Pat Symcox asking, "How many does this ground hold?"

Replied Gilchrist, naively, "35,000".

Said Symcox, grinning: "That makes 35,000 who hate you."

How wrong that statement would turn out to be.