True colours

He never had a moments regret for what he did in the World Cup semi-final against Sri Lanka. He never anticipated all the ramifications, though, and his actions caused him difficulties that seemed to go on and on. But the hardest moral questions were hard precisely for that reason. One could never anticipate all the consequences, never feel fully happy or comfortable with yourself. Yet if he had his time over, he would hope he would act the same way again, stated Adam Gilchrist in his book “True Colours”.

Australia was drawn to play Sri Lanka while India, the next highest qualifier, got Kenya. The match was in Port Elizabeth, where they sneaked home against England and New Zealand. The St George’s Park wicket was usually uneven, and favored spin more than express pace, although quicks Brett Lee, Andy Bichel and Shane Bond all took five-wicket hauls there during the tournament. “If the Lankans could have chosen anywhere in South Africa to play us, it would be there reminisces,” says Gilchrist.

Ricky Ponting won the toss, and he walked out with Haydos thinking, ‘Test Match, Test Match’. He did not want to come out blazing. They didn’t need to score 300. On that wicket the key was to make a solid start, then keep Murali out and attack the other bowlers later. Their job was to get through the first overs without losing wickets. He let a few go from Vaas - still thinking ‘Test match, Test match’ - but to show the limitations of those plans, when Guneratne bowled some loose ones in the second over he hit a four and a six.

Haydos came down the wicket.’ Did you pre-plan that?

‘No, I had no idea,’ Gilchrist said. He was just watching the ball. But I couldn’t worry about breaking the plan. He was seeing it well, and felt good. His way had always been to let his instincts go first and not ask too many whys and wherefores.

After five overs, they had thirty-five on the score board. Gilly was up to 22 and Jayasuriya then brought Aravinda de Silva on to bowl as his hitting had brought the Lankan’s plans to use their spinners. He pushed the first ball to cover. Aravinda’s second was a flighted one, and Gilly went down to sweep it behind square leg. He got a thick loud bottom edge. It went in to his front pad, just above the ankle. He heard cries of ‘Catch it! Catch it! And turned around to see Kumar Sangakkara with the ball in his gloves. Well that’s that, he thought.

But Rudi Koertzen at the bowler’s end shook his head, ‘Not out’.

Gilchrist noted that he felt strange, so much discontent about umpiring, video decisions, and trust between players had been bubbling away in the back of his mind when he saw Rudi shaking his head and Gilly heard an emphatic voice in him.

‘Go. Walk.’

So he walked. At first he was not feeling anything but annoyance that when he was going so well, he’d got out. And this was the main thing, wasn’t it? He’d made a mistake, he was out.

But the moment turned surreal mused Gilchrist. The crowd cheered him off, mainly the Sri Lankan supporters who were happy that he was out. There were other voices in his head too, telling him he was crazy, he was defying all cricketers did, and he was throwing the World Cup away. (In this day and age if something of that sort happened the batsman would rub his chest and shake his head, it’s a pity that this pristine game has become so putrid). Gilly was dumbstruck; could he rewind the last minute? Could he go back? No. The dominant was like a school teacher, calling the others to order and reassuring him that he had done the right thing.

As soon as he got into the changing room he took his gear off, grabbed a drink and went into the viewing room with the boys.

The rule of these moments in life was always that you don’t know how big it was until you see others react. And it wasn’t good. Someone asked if he had seen Rudi shake his head and say not out. He thought most of them thought or hoped that he simply had not seen Rudi.

‘Yes,’ he said. ‘He saw him.’

Gilchrist recalls that he suddenly felt very lonely, knowing how his walking was going to look to the others. Why then? Why in a World Cup semifinal? Why did he do something to appease his conscience, when the whole team’s fate hung in the balance?

A few minutes later Ricky got out for two. They were 2 for 37. He unpadded, then, when he came to the viewing room, asked him if he’d seen Rudi given him not out.

Gilly told Ponting he had, and went on and stated that the implications of what he had done would play out over the next hours, days and even the years.

When they walked out he had a nice acknowledgement from Rudi. He was worried that he’d embarrassed him. He applauded me. Later after the game, he said ‘congratulations. It took a lot to do what you did and we’d all be better off if there was more of it.’

Fortunately, Sri Lanka never got close. Their opening bowlers broke through and Bic (Bichel) threw down the stumps on a pick-up-turn-and-throw to run out Aravinda in his last international innings. A great batsman gone. Bic then bowled four maidens in a row. Sri Lanka was 7 for 123 when a thunderstorm hit and they were pronounced winners. They celebrated for hours since they were in the World Cup final, concluded Adam Gilchrist.