The best pure wicketkeeper of all time

[_Ed_]

James Foster, just, from Sarah Taylor - that pair apart I'd have agreed with LT

Yeah, Taylor certainly deserves a mention. She's ridiculous.

 

[MrPrez]

Think it’s interesting that generally, with exceptions, the respect that keepers get is directly linked to how long ago they played.

Absolutely. I think since it's so difficult to quantify statistically, it becomes much easier for romanticism to come into play.

I reckon your Ian Healys of the modern era were just as good as your Bari's and Oldfields.

That said, the one discerning element would be older keepers playing on uncovered pitches which would make keeping much harder - particularly to spinners. But it feels unfair to penalise modern keepers for not keeping on these pitches.

 

[The Battlers Prince]

Have a watch of some Wally Grout videos, the bloke had the fastest hands. If you can watch him getting a stumping. Not just speed but precision

 

[OverratedSanity]

The first catch in this video is unbelievable. Commentator makes it seem as though it's merely good. Needs to lift his game and scream his head off imo.

 

[Daemon]

Dhoni’s stumpings are seriously ridiculous. As an overall package he’s not in the conversation but in that particular aspect I haven’t seen anyone close to his speed.

 

[Shri]

and the little pause with his gloves millimeters away from the stumps is legendary

 

[Shri]

And how little they averaged with the bat

That just means that your wk skills are something special if a team decides to carry you despite you being a **** bat, which also makes you confused about Nayan Mongia, Parthiv Patel and Tim Paine's inclusion in their teams.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

Absolutely. I think since it's so difficult to quantify statistically, it becomes much easier for romanticism to come into play.

I reckon your Ian Healys of the modern era were just as good as your Bari's and Oldfields.

That said, the one discerning element would be older keepers playing on uncovered pitches which would make keeping much harder - particularly to spinners. But it feels unfair to penalise modern keepers for not keeping on these pitches.

Healy certainly, but there's no "romanticism" in the poor rating of modern day keeping. Since the advent of Gilchrist everyone wants his runs in their side. Unfortunately it overlooks the fact that he was also a Test quality keeper, whereas today's selected keepers are not always even full time keepers never mind of high quality.

 

[Bijed]

Healy certainly, but there's no "romanticism" in the poor rating of modern day keeping. Since the advent of Gilchrist everyone wants his runs in their side. Unfortunately it overlooks the fact that he was also a Test quality keeper, whereas today's selected keepers are not always even full time keepers never mind of high quality.

Yeah, there's definitely a more prevailing attitude of it's ok for someone to lear 'on the job' with their keeping these days if they're making runs, but not vice-versa. And to be fair, a Prior and Bairstow (just as examples) started off a poor keepers and improved quite a lot.

Out of interest, I've heard people say before that Gilchrist wasn't actually a particularly special keeper when he first started playing international cricket - was this actually the case?

 

[AndrewB]

Its always going to be an impossible discussion this one, basically everyone will pick the best one they’ve seen, making it impossible to compare across eras, due to lack of relevant stats for keepers. One thing I’ve always found interesting though is Oldfield’s percentage of stumpings. Seems quite insane, and was not just at test level.

What proportion of the time was he keeping to O'Reilly and Grimmett?
When the SA attack was basically a quartet of leg-spinners before WW1, Percy Sherwell took 16 stumpings and 20 catches in 13 Tests.

 

[quincywagstaff]

Out of interest, I've heard people say before that Gilchrist wasn't actually a particularly special keeper when he first started playing international cricket - was this actually the case?

I always thought he was underrated as a keeper. I think what hurt him was when he had off days they were really bad but they were pretty rare and in general he was a very good keeper. Can't recall him missing much off Warne either.

 

[vcs]

Haddin was also quite good, took lots of blinders keeping to pace bowlers. Not sure how he did to spin.

 

[AndrewB]

In "Cricket Crisis" Fingleton (plus unnamed colleague) pick Jock Cameron ahead of Oldfield, Ames and Duckworth as their keeper in a World XI of players they had played with and against, though his batting was partly the reason for that; but they do mention that Oldfield struggled when keeping to Fleetwood-Smith.

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

Sangakkara

 

[kyear2]

Jock Cameron and Jackie Hendriks both deserve a mention. David Murray was supposedly superb bit had too many issues to stay on the field.

 

[ImpatientLime]

And how little they averaged with the bat

equally you see lots of over compensating on here that would have you believe Gilchrist was a top 5 glove man of all time

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

There's a legend in our club...a wicket-keeper during the 80s who would kept up to the pacers...and before he would get into the field, he would load his pockets with fried channa. While he was behind the stumps, he would put a few channas into his mouth so that when the bowler delivers the ball, he would spit out a channa out of his mouth projectile style in hopes of getting the bail off its grooves.
He was very effective in this trick...but was ultimately found out when a batsman of a sharp sense of smell picked up the smell of garlic and peppers (the fried channas were season with these).
He was kicked out of the club and began drinking and smoking crack.
He would still come to games at our club (as a spectator), and provide excellent commentary from the stands.
The Crack really got to him. He passed away about 10 years ago.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

equally you see lots of over compensating on here that would have you believe Gilchrist was a top 5 glove man of all time

Has anyone implied that? He was a good enough keeper to play Test Cricket purely as a keeper without his batting. But top five of all time, no chance.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Sangakkara

He was outstanding. Underrated because he decided to become an ATG batsman instead.

 

[Burgey]

The first catch in this video is unbelievable. Commentator makes it seem as though it's merely good. Needs to lift his game and scream his head off imo.

That's a crazy catch.

No surprise with the last wicket in that clip to see Botham jag a wicket with some leg side trash. Was the tinniest bowler I've ever seen.