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With a five-ball duck in the first innings at Adelaide, Brad Haddin was greeted by the sound of journalists and armchair selectors around the country sharpening their knives.
This scrutiny is not without merit, but it did get me thinking how we would judge Haddin if we weren’t living in the AG (After Gilchrist) era.
Just as Shane Warne made it nearly impossible for any Australian spinner to follow in his footsteps, Adam Gilchrist also managed to set a ridiculously lofty standard for his successors.
While more than handy with the gloves, what set Gilly apart from previous Australian keepers was his top six batting ability, which freed the selectors up to gamble on players like Andrew Symonds in the number six position.
It’s important to recognise, however, that Gilchrist was a rarity, like Warne. Prior to his tenure, the best wicketkeepers Australia had produced were outstanding glovemen who were handy with the bat. Think Ian Healy, Rod Marsh and Don Tallon.
A worrying development in the AG era is the apparent preference for batting over glovework. This was evident when the selectors opted to replace Haddin with Matthew Wade last year.
Some may argue it was also the reason Haddin was selected over other keepers to succeed Gilchrist, with better pure glovemen available at the time.
Haddin came in to the side with a strong batting record, but he was never going to be Gilchrist, and that’s okay. As we’ve learned with Nathan Lyon, when you’re following genius, it’s best to just be yourself and put in consistent performances.
Regardless of whether Haddin lasts the summer, let’s implore our selectors to place greater value on a wicketkeeper’s main role behind the stumps.
Aside from providing nuisance value with non-stop chirping that rivals most call centre workers, the keeper often plays a vital role assisting the skipper with field placement, pitch conditions and a myriad of other information.
Add to this the small matter of ensuring catches are taken, stumpings and run outs are executed, and the high value of the little person behind the stumps becomes apparent.
One only needs to look at the experience of Lyon in India last year to see the impact a poor performance behind the stumps can have on bowlers. No amount of runs scored by a keeper can overcome this.
My hope is that having a chairman of selectors who was also one of the best glovemen in the history of the game will see a greater appreciation of glovework when selecting future wicketkeepers.
With Haddin surely in the twilight of his career, a decision on his successor will mostly likely come at some point in the next 12 months. While batting ability is of greater importance in shorter forms of the game, it should be a secondary consideration for the Test side.
Instead of maintaining an unhealthy focus on the batting averages of state keepers, the selectors should instead pay most attention to capacity behind the stumps. This can be difficult to gauge in numbers, which is where the expertise of Rod Marsh and other former greats like Ian Healy will be crucial.
Catches, stumpings and byes are clearly identifiable on scorecards, but dropped chances, missed stumpings and run-outs are perhaps more quickly forgotten.
Some sort of statistical ranking matrix could therefore be employed by national and state selectors, allowing performance behind the stumps to be more comprehensively assessed. While I am no statistician, a plus-minus system, as employed in basketball, could be useful here.
Catches taken, stumpings and run outs completed, and instances of saving runs could add points, while errors in these areas would see points deducted. This would allow national and state selectors to more accurately compare the performance of wicketkeepers.
With this type of consistency across the board, our selectors will be able to focus on the keeper’s work behind the stumps, hopefully taking away from their current obsession with batting averages.
Above all, let’s hope that Haddin’s successor and those who follow in the future are chosen with a focus on glovework. Demanding a high batting average, as well as outstanding wicketkeeping, really is an unreasonable expectation.
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