To me, expertise with bat and gloves also constitutes all-round excellence.
If Australia lacks a genuine batsman-bowler all-rounder at Test level since the retirements of Richie Benaud and Alan Davidson in early 1960s, Rod Marsh, Ian Healy and Adam Gilchrist helped Australia in reaching the top rung of cricket with their aggressive batting and acrobatic work behind the stumps.
They were, to some extent, as much two-triggered match-winners as Keith Miller, Gary Sobers, Ian Botham, Imran Khan, Richard Hadlee and Kapil Dev were for their countries.
A wicket-keeper is like a pianist in an orchestra: there is room for only one.
To be included, one has to be the best. The gloved all-rounders, from Les Ames, Godfrey Evans, Marsh and Alan Knott to the more recent quartet of Healy, Gilchrist, South African Mark Boucher and India’s MS Dhoni, are featured in a two-part series.
Les Ames (England).
A cheerful and bubbly character, he was strongly built and equally at ease ’keeping to the thunderbolts of Harold Larwood, the fastish swing of Bill Voce or the spin wizardry of ‘Tich’ Freeman.
Also, he kept scoreboard operators busy with his entertaining batting as he was the first world-class wicket-keeper batsman.
He was good enough to play for England as a batsman alone. No other wicket-keeper has scored 100 first-class centuries (102, including nine double hundreds).
In 593 first-class matches, he amassed 37,248 runs at 43.51, including 2434 runs (with eight centuries) at 40.56 in 47 Tests.
He also made 1121 dismissals (703 caught and 418 stumped) in first-class matches including 97 (74 caught and 23 stumped) in Tests. His total of 418 stumpings at first-class level remains a record after seven decades.
Godfrey Evans (England) and Farokh Engineer (India).
Exuberant, ebullient and extrovert are the terms which describe two wicket-keeper batsmen, born thousands of kilometers and 18 years apart. They are the Es of cricket; Evans of Kent and England and Engineer of Bombay, India and Lancashire.
Both were dare-devilishly outstanding wicket-keeper-batsmen of their day.
They dived full-length to collect balls on either side, making difficult catches look easy and at times easy catches look spectacular! They loved entertaining the crowd and were hungry for applause.
Both scored over 2000 runs in Tests, Evans 2439 at 20.49 in 91 Tests, Engineer 2611 at 31.08 in 46.
They hit two Test tons each and both narrowly missed out on scoring a century before lunch, Evans against India at Lord’s in June 1952, Engineer against the West Indies at Madras in January 1967. The swashbucklers made nonsense of the theory that wicket-keepers should not be showy.
Rodney Marsh (Australia).
He started his Test career under a cloud, but ended it 14 years later, among the stars.
Selected in the Australian team in the Ashes series of 1970-71 to replace the popular Brian Taber, he dropped a few catches in his Test debut in Brisbane and was nicknamed ‘Iron Gloves’.
The following month in the Sydney Test, he was booed by a section of the pro-Taber crowd.
But the tough, moustachioed Marsh did not let this negative crowd reaction upset him. If any, it increased his determination to succeed.
In his Test swansong against Pakistan in Sydney in January 1984, he was cheered lustily by the crowd as he took five catches in his final innings and became the first wicket-keeper to make 350 Test dismissals.
It was the Test where the three icons of Australian cricket – Greg Chappell, Dennis Lillee and Marsh – bid farewell to Test cricket simultaneously.
With fellow West Australian Lillee, Marsh had formed a fabulous partnership; 95 of Lillee’s 355 wickets were caught by Marsh.
It remains a record three decades later and the term “caught Marsh bowled Lillee” has become a folklore.
Caught Marsh bowled Lillee is also the title of Ian Brayshaw’s biography of the Aussie legends. In the Foreword, captain Ian Chappell emphasised the role the Lillee-Marsh combination played in Australia’s success in 1970s and ’80s.
“As players they were a captain’s dream. At one end, a talented fast bowler who, with huge heart, was always ready to give just one last effort for his team. At the other end, a man whose skill with the gloves could lift a team with a brilliant catch or who could offer some tactical advice that might turn a game in the team’s favour.”
Alan Knott (England).
All eyes were on Alan Philip Eric Knott when he is on the field, whether wicket-keeping or batting. His fidgeting, twisting and calisthenics made compulsive viewing.
As a wicket-keeper, he surpassed all records for an Englishman during his fourteen hectic years between 1967 and 1981.
Small, nimble-footed and quick-witted, he was an impish genius, as suggested by his initials APE!
He was prone to stiff muscles and therefore exercised constantly to keep his limbs supple. His pads had to have four straps instead of three. He changed his clothes and showered at each interval and existed mostly on a diet of fruit and milk.
He was preferred to his wicket-keeping rivals, especially Bob Taylor, because of his superior batting. Knott batted in two gears; slow and defensive when England was in trouble but once the runs were on the board he switched to top gear, pressing down the accelerator paddle to the full.
According to Christopher Martin-Jenkins, “His right-handed batting was shrewd, increasingly unorthodox (his top hand holding the bat with the palm facing the bowler) and often outrageous, as when he repulsed the dangerous swing bowling of Bob Massie by carting him to all parts of the leg-side field in 1972.”
Ian Healy, Adam Gilchrist, Adam Boucher and Mahendra Singh Dhoni will be featured in Part II next week.
GEOFF THE GLOVEMAN
Guest
BOB TAYLOR WASLTHE BEST"" GLOVEMAN"" I SAW HE WAS A PURE STUMPER, LIFT YOUR FOOT UP PLAYING A BALL ON THE WALK & MISS IT & YOU WERE GONE HE WAS A STUMPER THEN YOU HAVE A WICKETKEEPER BATSMAN & THEN A BATSMAN WICKETKEEPER I WOULD ALWAYS PICK A STUMPER THE OTHERS MIGHT GET A LOW SCORE & MISS A CHANCE IT'S A SPECIALIST POSITION YOU DON'T PICK A GOALKEEPER CUZ HE TAKES GOOD GOALKICKS
Kersi Meher-Homji
Guest
Hi Shamim, Wow, what a thrill that someone reads my post 20 months after it is written. And thanks for the kind words. India and Pakistan have produced good WK-batsmen. India: Madav Mantri, Farokh Engineer, Budhi Kunderan, Syed Kirmani. Pakistan: Imtiaz Ahmed, Hanif Mohammad. Please also read Part II of this article for more names of WK-batsmen. But are you joking that India produces good fast bowlers? Pakistan does. If you ask Roar for my e-mail address they will provide and then we can correspond.
Y. Shamim
Guest
Hi Mr. Meher-Homji - Nice article that I just came across while searching for an answer to a question myself (I will get to that in a moment). Thank You. Now to my question - you seem to be familiar with the Sub-Continent cricket... Until MS Dhoni came to the Indian side - India did not have a goof all round Wkt.keeper batsman (other than Kirmani - in my humble opinion). Similar goes for Pakistan - as they did not have a decent Wkt. keeper batsman other than may be Rashid Latif. What would it take for Pakistan or India to produce a specialist keeper/batsman? Of course one can only wish for someone like Adam G. but even Brandon Mc is a great current example. With the sub-continent always striving to produce batsmen and fast bowlers - what would it take to groom a wicket keeper into a batsman role or - vice versa? Would love to hear back your comments, sir. Best regards ~Y~ Reno, NV USA. If you can reply to me personal e-mail that would be greatly appreciated.
Ehtisham Ali
Guest
gilly for sure is the world best wicket keeper batsman. he opened the batting many times and got australia to a flying start. he holds the record for most dismissals in odi. his attacking innings at the start was a major part of aussies success from 1999 to 2008. sanga and boucher are good but boucher is more a keeper than a batsman and sanga's keeping was poorer than gilchrist so i consider gilly as best wicket keeper ever
Colin N
Guest
Yes you can. The reason why he lasted so long was because he was an excellent wicketkeeper. Until Prior improved his glovework, they have struggled for years to find anyone as good.
Kersi Meher-Homji
Guest
Timmuh, Part II should appear tomorrow. I had underestimated the enormity of the project. It may stretch out to two further installments. Research is in progress. Watch this space (The Roar web-site) for more wicket-keeping batsmen.
Timmuh
Roar Guru
I should have re-read the headline, and realised this was only part one. Look forward to the next instalment.
Rob McLean
Guest
He had his shot before Healy. He clearly got a look in. i'm biased, as Healy is my favourite, but the Queenslander was definitely the better keeper.
Uncle Eric
Guest
But you can't rate Alec Stewart as a truly test class wicketkeeper.
The_Wookie
Roar Guru
Hmm no love for Romesh Kaluwitharana? I still believe he was the prototype for the later test/ODI onslaught of Gilchrist and other keepers who opened with that kind of explosive batting. Guys like healy, Stewart and boucher, and to a lesser extent Flower were solid batsmen who could grind out when necessary but were not notably quick on the scoreboard. The guy who wont appear on this list though, and really was just unlucky will be Tim Zoehrer, a handy batsman/keeper and offspinner who just happened to surface at the same time as healy, at a time when glovework was more important than your other skills. He just couldnt get a look in, lol.
Ian Whitchurch
Guest
While a great keeper, Rod Marsh with 96 matches, 3 centuries and and average of 26 is not an all-rounder. In comparison, an actual all rounder who played at the same time, Kapil Dev, had 8 centuries off 131 matches at 31.
Johnno
Guest
Moin khan and Rashid latif pulled off some big innings for palkistan real pressure style innings, and ii always thought ridley jacobs could bat a bit as well, and now we have to modern day quality wiket-keeper batsman kmuar sangakarra and the south african abi de villeins they are really classy batman both of them, i think Sangakarra is the best batsmen in test cricket currently, good batsmen no doubt about that. And matt prior is handy as well to, and so is the new ENGLAND wikey batsman in T20 Kieweswetter he can sure play. And BRENDON Mcullum surely has to get a look in as one of the great wicket keeper batsman , he can hit a cricket ball as hard as any batsman in world cricket at any form of the game he would give them all a run for there money including gilchrist when on fire. And adam Parore I saw him play a few classy innings in my time to he was world class to in my opinion.
mds1970
Roar Guru
Alec Stewart was another who started out as a specialist batsman, but their long-term success came from combining the bat with the keeping gloves.
altus
Guest
altus
Guest
South Africa's Denis Lindsay had a shortened test career, but he scored 606 runs in 5 tests against Australia in 1966-67, including three centuries. He averaged 36 in his 15 tests. Not too shabby for the 60s.
Kersi Meher-Homji
Guest
Andy Flower and Jeff Dujon will be among those WK-batsmen to be featured in my Part II next week.
dasilva
Guest
Andy Flower One of the most underrated players he is a downright legendary keeper batsman If he was worst then Adam Gilchrist (this is very very debateable) it isn't by a large margin. He's got a higher batting average, higher high test scores then Gilchrist. I personally pick him in my best XI of all time above Gilchrist and I have been mocked making that choice before but I stand by it. He was one of the best player of spin in the world and completely hold together a mediocre zimbabwe side. To average 50 (by the way he average 53 as a keeper and 35 NOT as a keeper so his record is much better as a keeper) playing for zimbabwe is amazing. This performance against south africa is absolutely legendary and one of the best performance of the decade in a losing effort. http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/63949.html (along with Lara extraordinary effort against Sri Lanka)
JohnB
Guest
Dujon started in Tests, and in first class cricket, as a batsman only. Does this disqualify him?
Timmuh
Roar Guru
Andy Flower? Sure, he didn't win many Tests but he was in a side where even Bradman wouldn't have helped win many. Personally, as keeper-batsmen go, I would rate him number one. He wasn't as good a pure keeper that Knott or Healy were but he averaged 50 with the bat in a team where he was always the batsman targeted by oppositions and his glovework was among the better in the game (even if he didn't always keep wicket).
Kersi Meher-Homji
Guest
mds1970, my apologyfor wrongly naming Mark Boucher Adam. OOPS! Thanks for your comments, Sheek and mds1970, and in doing so made me break my 'duck'!