Legendary Australian cricket team wicket-keeper batter Adam Gilchrist opened up about the exact moment when he decided to retire from international cricket. Gilchrist shocked the world by announcing his retirement midway into the Adelaide Test against India in 2008. He was four matches away from completing 100 Tests – which would have only the second wicketkeeper in history to complete the milestone – but he recently said that it was after dropping an easy catch of India batter VVS Laxman that he decided to retire and he instantly told Matthew Hayden about his decision.
"Funny thing happened when India were in Australia the last time I played against them. I was trying to take a catch off the bowling of Brett Lee. And the night before I had been on the phone to my wife all night working out the travel plans because we were touring the West Indies after the India series.”
"On that tour, I was probably going to get myself up to 99 Tests and then after that, we were going to tour India and that's where I would have played my 100th and joined an elite group of Australian Test cricketers and a few others around the world," said Gilchrist on the Club Prairie Fire Podcast.
"Then the next day, I attempted to take a catch off the outside edge of VVS Laxman, dropped it, an absolute soda, as simple as it gets. The ball hit the ground and I looked at the replay on the big screen, looked at it again and again and again and it went probably 32 times."
"I turned to Matthew Hayden and said I'm done, I'm out. From the ball hitting the glove to the ball hitting the grass, in an instant, I realized it was time to retire. Don't worry about the tour of the West Indies, don't worry about the 100th Test in India, that was the decision made for me to give up Test cricket," Gilchrist added.
Gilchrist recalled that Hayden did try to persuade him out of taking such a drastic decision.
"Mate, I'm done, I'm out.' He looked at me just very quickly and said, 'Come on mate, don't beat yourself up, it's not the first one of those you dropped and it probably won't be the last, let's face it. Good support from a teammate, but that was a moment in an Indian series in Australia that I remember – the definitive moment of my Test career and have never regretted it since," he said.