Adam Gilchrist - The Gentleman Cricketer, Walker, Champion

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Opening a thread for the greatest wicketkeeper-batsman in the history of Cricket. Apart from countless feathers in the cap, including 3 ODI World Cup medals, and several match-winning knocks, Post-retirement, Gilchrist has proven to be a great talent-groomer and winning captain.

In 2008, people claimed Shane Warne was the greatest captain Australia never had but by winning IPL in 2009, and repeating the feat in 2010, Gilchrist has gone a step ahead to claim that title. Although he did captain Australia for a few odd test matches, the IPL is where his ability to take a rag-tag unit and forge it into a match winning combination has come to the fore
* Rohit Sharma came to Deccan as a colt, and has emerged as a winning horse already
* T Suman was groomed out of nowhere to a reliable deliverer
* Harmeet Singh, who is no more than an equivalent of Joginder, has been groomed into a match winning bowler by Gilly. This is where Gilly scores over Dhoni. No hoping for the best possible talent - use the existing limited talent to match winning purposes.
* Reining in of Symonds, and Gibbs, and extracting the best out of them without allowing them to get into disciplinary problems
* Juggling Vaas/Harris shrewdly and selecting the right person among them for the right match. What shrewd thinking
* Making Pragyan Ojha the best spinner in India
* Second only to Rajasthan in having the mental strength to win close matches. If you consider the record since 2009, then Deccan emergers top on mental strength. Obviously, this speaks about the winning culture forged by Gilchrist in the Deccan environment. Now, this is called nurturing a winning environment

All in all, the best captain in 3 years of IPL looks all set to be the first captain to win back-to-back titles.

Given that this is the team that has taken second rung Indian talent and groomed them into match winners, I think fans of Indian Cricket team owe it to themselves to support Deccan Chargers over Mumbai and Chennai, no matter what their other affiliations are.

Adam Gilchrist's contribution to Indian Cricket will evventually surpass that of MS Dhoni and Sachin Tendulkar - just wait and watch!