The Hindu : Sport : I walk, therefore I am

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Nov 05, 2004

Sport

Sport

I walk, therefore I am — the Gilchrist principle

By Nirmal Shekar

HE WALKS: Adam Gilchrist walks as Mohd. Kaif takes a catch off Murali Kartik. — Photo: V.V. Krishnan

Adam Gilchrist did it again. Sure in his mind he had lost his wicket, the Australian vice-captain walked without waiting for the umpire's signal in the fourth Test against India in Mumbai on Thursday.

Only the previous ball from Murali Kartik, which the debutant Indian wicket-keeper Dinesh Kaarthick had secured in his gloves with a superb leap after it had bounced off Gilchrist's upper arm, the Australian left-hander had stood his ground even as several Indian players appealed vociferously. Within seconds, Gilchrist was gone, playing the ball off his right thigh into Kaif's hands. There was not even the slightest hesitation as he walked. But, then, knowing the man, you would expect him to, wouldn't you?

So what's new? He did it in Chennai, when his team was starting at a possible defeat. He has done it before that. And, surely, he will do it again. In the event, what's the fuss all about?

Moral courage

Ah, how smugly we get used to goodness of character! How easily we brush aside moral issues of timeless significance! Almost dismissively we accept moral courage in the competitive cauldron of modern sport! We take for granted the behaviour of a few heroic men like Gilchrist as a matter of habit.

But, then, the question is, what does it take to tuck your bat under your arm and briskly proceed towards the dressing room every single time you believe you have lost your wicket? What sort of pressure is Gilchrist putting on himself by accepting such a huge moral responsibility?

Few of us can hope to answer this question without having experienced the pressures of the centre-stage of sport. Yet, what is clear from the remarkable Gilchrist story is this: the great man is not doing it to seek some badge of honour or for a few good words in the press. He is doing it simply because he believes it is the right thing to do.

Then again, in life and sport, knowing what is the right thing to do is the easy part. Most of us did learn our moral science lessons early enough in life at school. On the other hand, really doing what you know is the right thing, in the face of tremendous pressures in a contest of high stakes, is easier merely contemplated than actually carried out.

Good sport

Here lies Gilchrist's greatness. He will live and play the only way he knows how to: fairly, honourably, as a good sport. On a brute of a wicket on which most batsmen would have readily grabbed any blessing bestowed upon them by fate, Gilchrist came up with a magnificent cameo before judging his own error as fatal.

In the high-noon of professional sport when commercial pressures have re-ordered the sporting arena and have effected a revaluation of values, if someone had written a piece of sports fiction with a Gilchrist-like hero, he might have been thought of as old-fashioned.

It is because of this it might have been difficult to believe that a player would consistently do what Gilchrist is doing if we had not experienced the `walking phenomenon' on this Australian tour of India. But seeing is believing. And now we know what stuff Gilchrist is made of.

The other day someone asked if the Australian vice-captain would walk every single time or whether he would do it if Australia, chasing "250 to win is 248 for nine with Gilchrist and the No.11 in the middle".

Strange how people often confuse such numbers, or even something as commonplace as winning and losing, with time-honoured principles on which the best of civilisation and culture has been built.

Principles, mate, principles. After all, stripped of all its hype, sport is nothing more than trivial pursuit. It matters only because the upholding of its greatest values prepares us for life in general. In essence, sport matters simply because the principles governing it matter.

Winning and losing pale into insignificance when compared to such matters of principle, when put alongside such heroic acts of moral courage as enacted by Gilchrist time and again.

And now, to answer that question about whether Gilchrist would walk if Australia needed two to win with a wicket in hand: yes, he would. The reason? Principles are forever. You cannot swear by them today and dismiss them tomorrow. You cannot employ them only when it suits you.

This is precisely when Adam Gilchrist walks every single time he knows he has been dismissed fairly. This is precisely why he will continue to do so as long as he plays the game to which he is an adornment.

One is reminded of the famous words of the 17th century French philosopher Rene Descartes: Cogito ergo sum. Translated into English, it reads, "I think, therefore I am.'' As for Gilchrist, he walks, therefore he is... therefore he is the person he wants to be, the sportsman he wants to be.

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