In world fascinated by stylish and hard hitting batsmen, intimidating pacers and crafty spinners, one chap crouched behind the stumps playing a singular role for his team is the wicketkeeper, one often overlooked and perhaps even at times undervalued for the contributions he is constantly called upon to make. Wicket keeping in international cricket is a tough job and no mistake. It means hours of crouching on your haunches, requires high levels of fitness, concentration, balance; to say nothing of quick reflexes and a good amount of anticipation.
The wicketkeeper has a view of the wicket and the batsman that no one else on the ground has. He therefore has the insightful input to offer that no one else on the field can give. He is a source of great encouragement for his bowlers and can be a constant source of distraction for the batsman as well! A good keeper is someone who increases the level of confidence of a bowler when he knows that there is an able guy at the other end who isn’t going to grass his catch and will have the anticipation to catch on when he varies his line and length.
It was perhaps Adam Gilchrist’s exceptional ability with the bat that gained him the kind of respect and following that he enjoyed as a keeper as well. M S Dhoni is not a natural keeper, but one who has worked hard at the job of keeping having at his disposal a keen mental ability and physical strength. In this department India’s most well regarded keeper was Syed Kirmani.
Among the current crop of wicket keepers, Mark Boucher of South Africa is a leader; the most successful keeper in the history of test cricket. With 453 catches and 22 stumpings in 126 Tests he has not only exceptional keeping abilities but also wields a mean bat.
Among the other notables in the keeping fraternity is Prasanna Jayawardene who is now the Lankan keeper leaving Kumara Sangakkara free to concentrate on the tough job of batting and captaining a side. Other notables worth mentioning are Kiwi Brendon McCullum and West Indian Denesh Ramdin.
If in recent times keeping is a department somewhat neglected, blame can be placed at the door of a game that is skewed rather too much in favour of the batsmen and it is sad that quality has taken something of a beating with keepers preferring to concentrate on their batting! This trend must be reversed if wicket keeping is not to become a dying art.
