By Neena Bhandari, IANS
Sydney : Close on the heels of Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s gloves being found to breach specifications, Australian wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist has given his keeping gloves for inspection to cricket administrators, fearing they may be illegal too.
“I have had my gloves checked, I have heard a rumour. I do know that the guy who makes those gloves makes my gloves as well and I have had match referees check my gloves and they are fine,” the about-to-retire Australian wicketkeeper told the media.
Dhoni took a spectacular one-handed catch of Gilchrist in the tri-series match against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Sunday and concerns were raised about the gloves by Channel Nine commentators, Ian Healy and Ian Chappell.
“He (Dhoni) was just too good for himself. He took too good a catch and exposed it, I suppose, the fact that there was a little discrepancy there. I don’t think they were glaringly obvious to be different to what, say, I use at the moment. But they were just a bit too big. And it was an outstanding catch,” Gilchrist said.
The ball had lodged inside the gloves’ webbing between the thumb and index finger.
Sunrising Sportings Goods, the Indian manufacturers of the gloves, insisted that Dhoni’s gloves match the specifications and were legal.
“The same gloves are also being used (under the brand name Puma) by wicketkeeper Gilchrist. Then why are those gloves not termed illegal?” company director Virendra Sareen was quoted as saying by the Sydney Morning Herald.
According to International Cricket Council specifications, a wicketkeeper’s gloves should have no webbing between the fingers except joining index finger and thumb, where webbing may be inserted as a means of support. However, it should not protrude beyond the straight line joining the top of the index finger to the top of the thumb.