Bowlers around the world issued a sigh of relief yesterday at Adam Gilchrist’s decision to retire from international cricket. The Adelaide Test, which finishes tomorrow, will be his last, and he will bow out after a triangular one-day series against India and Sri Lanka ending on March 7. The gratitude won’t spread to those charged with bowling at the most dangerous batsman of modern times in the Indian Premier League (IPL), which launches in April and for which Gilchrist is now free to play. He recently signed a contract worth £400,000 and is expected to fulfil it.

The reasons behind his departure are complex. He is 36 and has been toying with retirement for some time. He has a young family whom he is keen to repay with his time, and Australia are due to tour Pakistan, the West Indies and India this year. But he was eager to play 100 Tests. As it is, he will finish with 96 caps.

In truth, his game has been in slight decline and he may have feared that the selectorial axe was hovering. He has made some bad errors behind the stumps against India, and since the start of the 2005 Ashes, when he was quelled by Andrew Flintoff, his Test batting average lies just above 30. Then there was the lure of the IPL’s Twenty20, which is rapidly changing the face of world cricket. Last week the franchises of the eight teams were sold for $712m to add to a decade of TV coverage worth $1 billion.

Gilchrist’s departure continues the break-up of a great Australian team and asks further questions of their ability to regenerate.

His place will initially go to Brad Haddin, a talented batsman-wicketkeeper in his own right, but he cannot hope to reproduce the performances of Gilchrist, 14 of whose 17 Test centuries resulted in victories.

Of those who faced England in Brisbane 14 months ago, Gilchrist, Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Justin Langer and Damien Martyn have all retired. Given his astonishing ability to turn matches, Gilchrist will prove every bit as impossible to replace as Warne.

The England team learnt of Gilchrist’s announcement as they prepared to board a plane at Heathrow for their two-month tour of New Zealand. Paul Collingwood, the captain of the one-day team, said: “Thank God for that” before adding: “Gilly always went out there and expressed himself. There was no fear of failure and he was very difficult to stop. He set the benchmark. It has been difficult for other sides to find a similar player.”

Asked if Gilchrist’s absence would improve England’s chances of regaining the Ashes, Collingwood replied: “It depends how his replacement does, but Warne, McGrath and Gilchrist will be hard to replace in the dressing room. As we know, you need big, strong characters to be successful.”

As a young man, Gilchrist moved from Sydney to Perth to further his opportunities. There he not only gained regular cricket but developed his unique cross-batted game on the Waca’s bouncy pitches. Two-thirds of the 100 sixes he hit in Tests — more than anyone else — came over midwicket.

Arguably, he could only have flourished in a set-up such as Australia’s.

While other countries fretted when their wicketkeepers made mistakes, Gilchrist was given licence to fail. Even in his pomp, he squandered chances with the gloves: in 2005 he reprieved Michael Vaughan 41 runs into his 166 at Old Trafford. In one-dayers his batting didn’t come off with extraordinary frequency, but when it did, it was in extraordinary fashion. That was good enough for Australia.

The last World Cup was a classic case in point. Gilchrist was subdued in every game up to the final, when he tore Sri Lanka to shreds with 149 from 104 balls and settled the match. At a stroke, his presence in the side was justified.

Andy Flower, the only wicketkeeper-batsman whose Test record bears comparison with Gilchrist’s, said yesterday: “He set incredible standards. In my view, he is a one-off, probably the best keeper-batter who ever played. I don’t know if it put undue pressure on other teams to find someone similar. The search for players of class and power who can influence games is always on.”

Never mind that he kept wicket, the only batsman in the fully professional era capable of the same consistent menace was Sanath Jayasuriya, but he played with more orthodoxy and sobriety in five-day games, whereas Gilchrist was the same in every arena. To maintain a Test average of almost 48 while scoring at nearly 82 runs per 100 balls was astonishing. Others with reputations for scoring fast — Flintoff and Shahid Afridi — were unable to maintain the carnage for anything like the time.

His great Test innings include many when there was a mini- crisis to be managed. There was his 152 at Edgbaston in 2001, which tore the match from English hands, and another hundred at Perth in 2006, the fastest in Ashes history, which put the game beyond England’s reach while shattering Monty Panesar with 24 runs in an over.

In his second Test he helped chase down 369 to beat Pakistan after Australia had slumped to 126 for five. In Johannesburg in 2002 he set a short-lived record for the fastest double-century in Test history. Gilchrist enjoyed, and deserved, astonishing success. He played in all three of Australia’s past World Cup victories and was acting captain when Australia won their first series in India for 35 years. Of his 95 Tests before Adelaide, Australia won 73, drew 11 and lost 11.

Furthermore, Gilchrist played with a dignity that some of his teammates could not muster. He broke ranks by opting — on some occasions — to “walk” rather than challenge the umpire to be certain of what he saw. Ricky Ponting never forgave him, but others will.

Gilchrist’s record

TESTS 96 matches, 5,556 runs, highest score 204 not out, average 47.89, 17 100s, 26 50s, ct 377, st 37

ONE-DAY INTERNATIONALS 277 matches, 9,297 runs, highest score 172, average 36.03, strike-rate 96.90, 15 100s, 53 50s, ct 401, st 53

Australians bowing out

Damien Martyn A classy middle-order batsman, he compiled 4,406 Test runs at an average of 46. Twice cruelly dropped by Australia’s selectors, including after the 2005 Ashes defeat, he quit without warning in Adelaide, denying himself a send-off on his home ground in Perth

Shane Warne From his fi rst Test ball in England, when he famously bamboozled Mike Gatting, Warne had a special hold on England, both on the fi eld and in the tabloids. He bowled Andrew Strauss to reach 700 Test wickets and ended his glittering career with 708 victims

Glenn McGrath After years of predicting it, McGrath fi nally got it right as he led Australia to a 5-0 Ashes whitewash last winter. He retired on his home ground with 563 scalps

Justin Langer Matthew Hayden’s opening partner, the pair rewrote the history books. Retired at the end of 2007 Ashes

Adam Gilchrist, right Having secured the world record for Test dismissals, he called it a day on Australia Day yesterday

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