Based on purely WK skills - Boucher Or Gilchrist?

[Shri]

Who was better? Both were fantastic against fast bowlers and both kept to some legendary bowlers in their playing days besides being very acrobatic. Who do you think was better?JBMAC's opinion would be great to have too.

 

[mr_mister]

my gut instinct is to say Bouch because he averaged less with the bat
after a bit of thought i'll still go Bouch but it's very close

 

[Zinzan]

Gilchrist gets underrated as a keeper by some, but on pure keeping Boucher was better.

 

[Shri]

Boucher had to retire when he had 999 international dismissals as a keeper.

 

[Dan]

my gut instinct is to say Bouch because he averaged less with the bat
after a bit of thought i'll still go Bouch but it's very close

...

 

[TheJediBrah]

I recall Boucher making more mistakes than Gilchrist, also Gilly took a lot of ridiculous diving catches that I doubt many keepers would even reach.

Gilchrist's keeping gets badly underrated just because of how good a Batsman he was. He was actually a brilliant pure-keeper.

Honestly have no idea who was better though. I'd say Gilchrist but there could be some bias in that.

 

[mr_mister]

...

it's a joke

if you want to be seen as a keeping God, average buckleys with the bat (Strudwick, Evans, Grout, Tallon, Russell)

if you want be seen as a batsman who took up keeping later in life as a part time hobby, bat like a beast (Sanga, Gilly, Flower)

 

[TheJediBrah]

it's a joke

if you want to be seen as a keeping God, average buckleys with the bat (Strudwick, Evans, Grout, Tallon, Russell)

if you want be seen as a batsman who took up keeping later in life as a part time hobby, bat like a beast (Sanga, Gilly, Flower)

dw it was obvious that it was a joke

 

[Daemon]

...

I must be one of the finest keepers the world has seen

 

[CapeTown Guy]

Both were really good, but not great keepers. Based just on their keeping, I can't split them.

Boucher made a lot of mistakes in his younger years particularly. From a SA perspective, Richardson has been our best keeper since isolation

 

[Victor Ian]

Gilchrist was clearly better because you only need his surname to find him in google. You have to enter Boucher's full name to find him.

 

[Victor Ian]

Having a look at their fielding summaries, I can not see how one can rate Boucher better, except if they put a lot of weight in length of career - however this is unfair to gilly as he had to wait a long time for Healy to move out of the way.

Gilly has more dismissals per innings, a much more consistant year to year, and in all places performance. In fact, the guy hardly varied from his career 2.178 dismissals per innings. Boucher at 1.975 is hardly far off, yet he varies more, particularly in Oceana.

Of course, this is only basing it on dismissals. I don't know how to see how they fared stopping byes and all that stuff.

For the entirety of Gilly's career Boucher's team was almost as good as Australia. He also kept to great bowlers so it is not as if he was unlucky to keep to dross (though spin was obviously an advantage for Gilly)

Purely stats based, Gilly has a good case for being the best keeper ever. Others may look nicer but his results were as good as you get from a keeper.

 

[Marius]

Gilchrist also had to keep to Warne, one of the best spinners ever, while Boucher never had the challenge of keeping to a real world class spinner while playing for SA.

But as a South African, I will say Boucher is the best keeper that's ever played the game bar none, and nobody will ever be better than him.

 

[cnerd123]

Yea honestly the Warne factor edges it for Gilly to me. Boucher never really kept to a great spinner. Warne spun it huge and I don't recall Gilly ever missing any, he was so safe. Ashwin and Jadeja bowling in India would relish a safe pair of hands behind the stumps like that.


But I'm not a wicketkeeping expert. I'm sure someone with a more technical eye who followed their keeping careers more closely would be able to give a fairer assessment.

 

[Dendarii]

Gilly has more dismissals per innings, a much more consistant year to year, and in all places performance. In fact, the guy hardly varied from his career 2.178 dismissals per innings. Boucher at 1.975 is hardly far off, yet he varies more, particularly in Oceana.

How useful is that statistic in terms of comparing keepers? After all, the better the bowling attack, the more opportunities that should come the keeper's way. So does Gilchrist having more dismissals per innings mean that he was a better keeper or that he kept to better bowlers (or a combination of the two)?

 

[indiaholic]

Yeah catches dropped is a far better statistic for wicketkeepers.

 

[OverratedSanity]

All statistics for wicket keepers are worthless tbf

 

[Victor Ian]

How useful is that statistic in terms of comparing keepers? After all, the better the bowling attack, the more opportunities that should come the keeper's way. So does Gilchrist having more dismissals per innings mean that he was a better keeper or that he kept to better bowlers (or a combination of the two)?

That number is just a rule of thumb. However, I feel it is fair to say that South Africa's fast bowling attack was the equal to Australia's. For instance, Pollock was almost a McGrath clone for a long while and Donald was better than Gillespie. Fair enough, Boucher never got to keep to a decent spinner. To be honest, I think there is hardly anything in it.

 

[Shri]

He did keep to Symcox, Harris etc., which is not the same but still.

 

[Marius]

He did keep to Symcox, Harris etc., which is not the same but still.

He kept for a long time to Paul Adams. I think he was fairly easy to read though, his wrong 'un was always flatter than his stock ball (although his stock ball was actually the wrong-un, if you get my meaning).