A wicket-keeper in characteristic position, ready to face a delivery. This keeper is "standing up" close to the wicket, for a slow pace bowler or spin bowler

A pair of wicket-keeping gloves. The webbing which helps the keeper to catch the ball can be seen between the thumb and index fingers.

Adam Gilchrist standing up to Shane Warne in 2005. Andrew Strauss is the batsman.

The wicket-keeper (also spelt wicketkeeper and often shortened to keeper) in the sport of [cricket]is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being guarded by the batsman currently on strike. The wicket-keeper is the only member of the fielding side permitted to wear gloves and external leg guards.^[1] The wicket-keeper may also wear a helmet with a mesh face guard to help protect from injury.^[2]

It is essentially a specialist role although a keeper is occasionally called upon to bowl, in which case another member of the fielding side temporarily keeps wicket. The role of the keeper is governed by Law 40 of the Laws of Cricket.^[3]

Purposes[link]

The keeper's major function is to stop deliveries that pass the batsman (in order to prevent runs being scored as 'byes'), but he can also attempt to dismiss the batsman in various ways:

• The most common dismissal effected by the keeper is for him to catch a ball that has nicked the batsman's bat, called an edge, before it bounces. Sometimes the keeper is also in the best position to catch a ball which has been hit high in the air. More catches are taken by wicket-keepers than by any other fielding position.
• The keeper can stump the batsman by using the ball to remove the bails from the stumps, if the batsman has come out of his crease during a delivery.
• When the ball is hit into the outfield, the keeper moves close to the stumps to catch the return throw from a fielder and, if possible, to run out a batsman.

A keeper's position depends on the bowler: for fast bowling he will crouch some distance from the stumps, in order to have time to react to edges from the batsman, while for slower bowling, he will come much nearer to the stumps (known as "standing up"), to pressure the batsman into remaining within the crease or risk being stumped. The more skilled the keeper, the faster the bowling to which he is able to "stand up", for instance Godfrey Evans often stood up to Alec Bedser. [1]

Wicket-keeping is a specialist discipline and it requires training consistent with the level expected of a specialist batsman or bowler. However, the modern-day keeper is also expected to possess reasonable batting skill, suiting him for the middle order at least. Wicket-keepers who are also capable of batting at the top of the order are known informally as keeper/batsmen.

Since there is only room for one keeper in a cricket side, selectors (especially at the international level) are often faced with a difficult choice between two or more skilled keepers. Often, one of the two keepers is an exceptional keeper, but only an average batsman, whereas the other is a keeper/batsman who is clearly better at batting, but not quite as good a keeper as his rival. One such selection dilemma was that faced by England selectors in the 1990s between Jack Russell (the pure keeper) and Alec Stewart (the keeper/batsman). They were never able to consistently choose between the two until 1998, when Russell began to fade: prior to that, they had regularly swapped the role, often with Stewart maintaining his place when not wicket-keeping thanks to his batting skill. Another prime example is that of Pakistani wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal, who is renowned for being a very inconsistent wicketkeeper who fluffs easy chances, but has remained a fixture in the team over the last decade because his batting is considerably superior to the alternatives'. Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Kumar Sangakkara, Brendon McCullum and Mark Boucher are the top keeper/batsmen today in cricket.

The keeper may also have a captaincy role. Uniquely, they are usually involved in every delivery of an innings, and may be in a position to see things that the captain misses. They can frequently be heard encouraging the bowler, and may also indulge in the practice (not meant to be overheard) of "sledging" the batsman with well timed comments about their skill, appearance or personal habits.

The keeper is the only fielder allowed to touch the ball with protective equipment, typically large padded gloves with webbing between the index finger and thumb, but no other webbing. The protection offered by the gloves is not always adequate. The England keeper Alan Knott sometimes placed steaks inside his gloves for added cushioning. Wicket-keepers also tend to wear leg pads and a box to protect the groin area.

Wicket-keepers are allowed to take off their pads and bowl, and this is not uncommon when matches are drifting to draws or a bowling team is desperate for a wicket. Two keepers have removed their pads and taken hat-tricks in first-class cricket: Probir Sen for Bengal v Orissa at Cuttack in 1954-55 and A.C. (Alan) Smith for Warwickshire v Essex at Clacton in 1965; Smith was a most unusual player in that he was primarily a wicket-keeper, but was sometimes selected as a frontline bowler.

Legal specifications of wicket-keeping gloves[link]

Wicket keeping gloves along with the inner gloves

Law 40.2, which deals with the specifications for wicketkeepers' gloves, states that: If,.... the wicket-keeper wears gloves, they shall have no webbing between the fingers except joining index finger and thumb, where webbing may be inserted as a means of support. If used, the webbing shall be:

(a) a single piece of non-stretch material which, although it may have facing material attached, shall have no reinforcements or tucks.

(b) such that the top edge of the webbing-

(i) does not protrude beyond the straight line joining the top of the index finger to the top of the thumb.

(ii) is taut when a hand wearing the glove has the thumb fully extended. [2]

Substitutes[link]

According to Law 2 of the Laws of Cricket, a substitute (taking the place of an ill or injured player) may not keep wicket.[3]

This rule is sometimes suspended, by agreement with the captain of the batting side, although Law 2 does not provide for such agreement to be made. For example, during the England—New Zealand Test Match at Lord's in 1986, England's specialist keeper, Bruce French was injured during England's first innings. England then used 4 keepers in New Zealand's first innings: Bill Athey kept for the first two overs; 45-year-old veteran Bob Taylor was pulled out of the sponsor's tent to keep, immaculately, for overs 3 to 76; Bobby Parks, the Hampshire keeper, was called up for overs 77 to 140; and Bruce French kept wicket for the final ball of the innings.

Leading Test match wicket-keepers[link]

The following top 10 wicket-keepers for dismissals in Test cricket.^[4]

Leading Test match wicket-keepers by dismissals1
No	Name	Country	Matches	Caught	Stumped	Total dismissals
1	Mark Boucher2*	South Africa	147	532	23	555
2	Adam Gilchrist	Australia	96	379	37	416
3	Ian Healy	Australia	119	366	29	395
4	Rod Marsh	Australia	96	343	12	355
5	Jeffrey Dujon	West Indies	81	267	5	272
6	Alan Knott	England	95	250	19	269
7	Alec Stewart	England	82	227	14	241
8	Wasim Bari	Pakistan	81	201	27	228
9	MS Dhoni*	India	67	192	28	220
10	Ridley Jacobs	West Indies	65	207	12	219

Notes in Table

1. Statistics are correct as of 25 May 2012
2. Indicates current player

Leading One day wicket-keepers[link]

The following wicket-keepers have taken 200 or more dismissals in one day cricket.^[5]

Leading one day wicket-keepers by dismissals1
No	name	Country	Matches	Caught	Stumped	Total dismissals
1	Adam Gilchrist	Australia	287	417	55	472
2	Mark Boucher2*	South Africa	295	402	22	424
3	Kumar Sangakkara2*	Sri Lanka	301	275	78	367
4	Moin Khan	Pakistan	219	214	73	287
5	MS Dhoni*	India	203	193	65	258
6	Ian Healy	Australia	168	194	39	233
7	Brendan McCullum*	New Zealand	201	218	15	233
8	Rashid Latif	Pakistan	166	182	38	220
9	Romesh Kaluwitharana	Sri Lanka	189	131	75	206
10	Jeffrey Dujon	West Indies	169	183	21	204

Notes in Table

1. Statistics are correct as of 25 May 2012
2. Indicates current player

See also[link]

• All-rounder
• Batsman
• Bowler
• Captain
• Catcher
• Glossary of cricket terms
• Fielder
• Squatting position

References[link]

Matt Prior

Personal information
Full name	Matthew James Prior
Born	(1982-02-26) 26 February 1982 (age 30) Johannesburg, Transvaal Province, South Africa
Height	5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Batting style	Right-handed
Role	Wicketkeeper-Batsman
International information
National side	England
Test debut (cap 635)	17 May 2007 v West Indies
Last Test	3-7 April 2012 v Sri Lanka
ODI debut (cap 187)	5 December 2004 v Zimbabwe
Last ODI	26 March 2011 v Sri Lanka
ODI shirt no.	23 (prev. 13)
Domestic team information
Years	Team
2001–present	Sussex
2002	MCC
2011	Victoria Bushrangers
Career statistics
Competition	Test	ODI	FC	LA
Matches	52	68	198	218
Runs scored	2,758	1,282	10,935	4,946
Batting average	43.09	24.19	40.65	27.02
100s/50s	6/19	0/3	26/61	4/27
Top score	131*	87	201*	144
Catches/stumpings	155/8	71/8	505/34	185/31
Source: CricketArchive, 26 February 2012

Matthew James Prior (born 26 February 1982) is an English One Day International (ODI) and Test cricketer who plays domestic cricket for Sussex. He is a wicket-keeper, and his aggressive right-handed batting enables him to open the innings in ODI matches. With an international Test debut score of 126, Prior became the first English wicket-keeper to hit a century in his debut match in early 2007. His glovework, however, was criticised. Despite a successful tour of Sri Lanka with the bat,^[1] Prior's keeping was less successful, and he was dropped from the team for the 2008 tour of New Zealand.^[2] He returned for the 2008 series against South Africa, and was retained into 2009, where he became the second fastest England keeper to reach 1,000 Test runs, behind Les Ames.

Early and personal life[link]

Prior was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and moved to England with his family aged 11. His mother is South African and his father is English.^[3][4] From an early age Prior showed commitment to charitable causes and has never shied away from taking part in matches and events in the name of charity. He is married to Emily, the daughter of former footballer Sammy Nelson who played for Arsenal F.C. and Brighton & Hove Albion. The Priors have a son named Jonathan who was born early 2009. Stuart Broad is Jonathan's godfather.

Domestic career[link]

Prior keeping wicket for Sussex during the final of the 2009 Friends Provident Trophy against Hampshire at Lord's.

Prior received the NBC Denis Compton Award for young cricketers three times in his career. He has hit more than 1,000 first class runs over the course of two seasons, in 2003 when he won the County Championship with Sussex, and 2004, when his 1,158 runs, including 201 not out against Loughborough UCCE, was enough to be top-scorer for Sussex that season. In 2005 he made fewer runs, with 874, but also became Sussex's first choice wicket-keeper again after having shared duties with Tim Ambrose in the two previous seasons. He has won the County Championship three times (2003, 2006 and 2007) although in 2007 he did not take part as much as before due to his England duties.

ODI career[link]

Prior made his One Day International debut in England's one-day series against Zimbabwe in 2004: he was chosen to open with Ian Bell and made 35 before he was dismissed by Edward Rainsford in a 74-run win.

Prior has been on three tours with the England A team, in 2003/4, 2004/5 and 2006/07. He was also selected as back-up wicket-keeper to Geraint Jones. He made 45. Having played in all five ODI's of the series, he was also named in the squad for the tour to India that followed and played in six ODI's, opening the batting in four of them. Prior remained in the One Day side until he was left out for the ODI squad for the tour to Sri Lanka, in favour of Phil Mustard (but remained in the Test side). After missing both home and away series against New Zealand, Prior returned to the side following the poor form of replacement Tim Ambrose for the home series against South Africa. On 26 August 2008 Prior took six catches against South Africa at Trent Bridge only the second Englishman to achieve that feat in an ODI. In that match England bowled South Africa for just 83 their second lowest score against England in a One Day game where Stuart Broad took career best figures of 5–23.

Prior was England's wicket-keeper for the ill-fated Twenty20 Stanford Super Series in November 2008, but was dropped for the Twenty20 match against the West Indies in early 2009 for Steven Davies, and for the 2009 World Twenty20 for James Foster. Despite this, Prior remained an active part of the England 50 over side, and was elevated to number 3 for the home series against the West Indies.

Test career[link]

Debut century[link]

Matt Prior was chosen ahead of Paul Nixon for the keeper's spot for the first Test of the summer at Lord's in 2007 against the West Indies. He scored a hundred on his debut, taking just 105 deliveries and hitting 16 boundaries after coming in at number 7, and finishing on 126 not out. He became the first England wicket keeper to score a Test hundred on debut^[5] and the 17th English batsman to record the feat overall. (Note that although both Paul Gibb and Billy Griffith scored debut centuries, and although both were wicket-keepers, neither was actually keeping wicket in their debut Test.) The last wicketkeeper to make a half century on debut was Jack Russell, who scored 94 against Sri Lanka at Lords in 1988.

Prior was one of four centurions in the innings along with Alastair Cook, Paul Collingwood and Ian Bell. It was the first time since 1938 that four England players scored hundreds in the same innings of a Test match.^[5]

Wicketkeeping issues[link]

During the 2007 Indian tour of England, Prior was heavily criticised by many former players including Ian Chappell for his behaviour on pitch. Prior was told by Chappell to focus more on keeping than chatting. An incident involving jelly beans tossed on the wicket by the England fielders angered batsman Zaheer Khan, and got the England players reprimanded by many. Zaheer later took a series of wickets to set up an Indian win. Prior's footwork was poor throughout the series with the gloves, conceding more byes than his predecessor in a third of the time. He also dropped VVS Laxman, Sachin Tendulkar and several others in critical moments, all of whom went on to make big scores. Ryan Sidebottom suffered heavily from Prior's keeping mistakes with five drops off his bowling.^[6]

Poor batting followed for the rest of the summer without scoring a half century. In the 2007 ICC World Twenty20, he broke his thumb and England did not bring reserve wicket keeper, so they gave Vikram Solanki the gloves. After that, he was selected to play in Sri Lanka in the Test series. His poor form followed with a duck but then scored 63 in the second innings. Prior put some critics to rest with this and with his efforts in the second match of the tour at Colombo, when he scored 79, which was the backbone of England's first innings score, and ended the series with the third highest batting average for England, 41.25.^[1]

However, Prior's good batting form was overshadowed by his poor wicket-keeping. It was the poor form with the gloves that led to him being dropped for the 2008 tour of New Zealand for Tim Ambrose, the Warwickshire keeper and former Sussex rival. When the squad was announced on 4 January 2008, Chairman of Selectors David Graveney stated – "Prior performed well with the bat in Sri Lanka and it has been a difficult decision to leave him out of this tour, but the selectors feel that he needs to further improve his wicket-keeping in order to realise his full potential in international cricket. But I'm sure Matt will be back, there's no doubt about that."^[2]

Return[link]

Prior returned to the international scene firstly in the One Day International series against South Africa, after missing home and away series against New Zealand. After showing improved glovework, and the failure of Ambrose to hold down a position in the side, Prior firstly returned to the One Day International side for their 4–0 series victory against South Africa in the summer of 2008. Due to this good form, Prior also returned to the Test side for the India tour later in 2008 (following the Stanford Super Series in November.

Named in the Test squad for the away series against the West Indies, Prior played in the First, Second and Third tests. However, with his wife due to give birth, Prior returned to England to witness the birth, with Ambrose deputising. Despite Ambrose making a not out 76, Prior returned for the 5th Test after returning to the Caribbean. Following the return, Prior made his highest Test score (131 not out) in the final Test Match in Trinidad, and celebrated his century by mimicking rocking a baby with his bat to celebrate becoming a father. However, once again his glovework was questionable, as in the same match he broke the world record for byes conceded. Nevertheless, he was declared Man of the Match.^[7] He remained in the side for the return tour of England by the West Indies and reached 1,000 Test runs with 42 in the first innings of the First Test – the second-fastest England wicketkeeper to this mark, behind Les Ames.^[8] He retained his place in the Test side for the 2009 Ashes, despite James Foster's apparently superior facility behind the sticks, as displayed to much acclaim during the World Twenty20. Prior had done well with the bat for Sussex in the County Championship, averaging over fifty, but had not kept wicket due to a hand injury sustained against the West Indies.^[9]

2009 Ashes[link]

Batting at number six, Prior continued his good form with the bat into the Ashes series, scoring a 62-ball 56 in the first innings at the SWALEC Stadium in Cardiff as England's middle- and lower-order boosted England to 435 all out, and 14 in the second innings as England held on for an improbable draw. In the Lord's victory Prior was bowled for 8 in the first innings as England subsided from 302 for 3 (Andrew Strauss 161) to 425 all out, but contributed a 42-ball 61 in the second innings as England sought quick runs; his partnership with Paul Collingwood added 86 runs in twelve overs. At Edgbaston he scored 41 in England's only innings in a drawn match, and held three catches in each of Australia's innings. Despite suffering from back spasms before the start of the first day, raising doubts as to his fitness to play, Prior offered a lone hand in the first innings at Headingley, scoring 37 not out as England subsided to 102 all out against Australia's seam attack; Prior aside, only Alastair Cook (30) reached double figures. He added a 29-ball 22 in the second innings, sharing a century partnership with Stuart Broad, but could not avert an innings defeat. At the Oval Prior scored only 18 and 4, but produced a sharp stumping on the final day to dismiss Marcus North as England surged to a 197-run victory in the match and a 2–1 victory in the series, thus regaining the Ashes. Prior's series aggregate of 262 runs was higher than any other England player bar Andrew Strauss; his runs had been scored at a Gilchrist-esque strike-rate of 82 per hundred balls.^[10]

2010–11 Ashes[link]

Prior was ever-present in the Test side in England's successful 2010–11 Ashes Series in Australia. He started the series with a golden duck, the second victim of Peter Siddle's hat-trick on the first day of the series. He only managed a top-score of 27 not out in the first three Tests, however he finished strongly in the final two.

In the fourth Test at the MCG, he held six catches in Australia first innings as they were bowled out for just 98. He followed this up with 85 runs as England won by an innings to take a 2–1 series lead and retain the Ashes with a Test to spare. In the fifth and final Test he scored his first century against Australia from 109 balls, the fastest English Ashes century since Ian Botham's 118 at Old Trafford in 1981. He was the third centurion of England's innings, along with Alastair Cook and Ian Bell, as England scored 644; their highest total in any Ashes series.

Prior standing up to the stumps during the Lord's Test against Sri Lanka

Test centuries[link]

Matt Prior's Test centuries
	Runs	Match	Against	Location	Venue	Year
[1]	126*	1	West Indies	London, England	Lord's	2007
[2]	131*	16	West Indies	Port of Spain, Republic of Trinidad and Tobago	Queens Park Oval	2009
[3]	102*	32	Pakistan	Nottingham, England	Trent Bridge	2010
[4]	118	40	Australia	Sydney, Australia	Sydney Cricket Ground	2011
[5]	126	42	Sri Lanka	London, England	Lord's	2011
[6]	103*	44	India	London, England	Lord's	2011

Notes[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Matt Prior

• Player Profile: Matthew Prior from Cricinfo
• Player Profile: Matthew Prior from CricketArchive

v t e England squad – 2007 ICC World Twenty20 3 Shah 5 Collingwood 6 Maddy 9 Anderson 11 Flintoff 13 Prior 16 Kirtley 24 Pietersen 28 Schofield 29 Snape 32 Mascarenhas 33 Tremlett 38 Solanki 39 Broad 45 Wright Coach: Moores Ravi Bopara and Ryan Sidebottom were named in the squad but withdrew after injury. James Anderson and Dimitri Mascarenhas were called up as replacements.

v t e England squad – 2011 Cricket World Cup 4 Trott 5 Collingwood 6 Wright 7 Bell 9 Anderson 14 Strauss (c) 16 Morgan 20 Bresnan 23 Prior 33 Tremlett 42 Bopara 46 Dernbach 53 Tredwell 66 Swann 95 Rashid Coach: Flower Eoin Morgan was named in the squad but withdrew after injury; Ravi Bopara was called up as a replacement. Morgan returned to the squad during the group stage when Kevin Pietersen withdrew due to injury. Chris Tremlett replaced the injured Stuart Broad mid-way through the group stage. Jade Dernbach replaced the injured Ajmal Shahzad for the quarter finals. Adil Rashid replaced Michael Yardy who went home for personal reasons before the quarter final.

Rashid Latif (Urdu: راشد لطیف; born 14 October 1968) is a former Pakistani wicket keeper and a right handed batsman who represented the Pakistani cricket team in Test cricket and One Day International matches, between 1992 and 2003. He also served as the captain of the Pakistan cricket team in 2003. Latif is the current coach of the Afghan National Cricket Team.^[1]

Career[link]

Latif started playing for the Pakistan national cricket team in 1992 after the 1992 Cricket World Cup. He impressed the national selectors by scoring 50 runs in his Test debut, However it did not cement his place in the national squad, throughout his career because he was competing with another Pakistani wicketkeeper, Moin Khan. This led to ongoing changes of wicket keepers for the next decade. In 1996, he announced his retirement after conflicts with some team players and the team management. He returned back to the Pakistan team and became the captain of Pakistan in 1998.

Latif remained out of the national squad until 2001, when after a string of poor performances, the Pakistan team replaced Moin Khan, who was selected as the captain. After returning back into the squad, he somewhat cemented his place by keeping the wicket and giving a string of good batting performances. The highlight of his career came when after the 2003 Cricket World Cup, he was announced as the captain of the Pakistan team. Under his leadership, Pakistan successfully experimented with several new players and the team gave positive results. He was also involved with uniting the players through his captaincy in both on and off the cricket field. However, indifferences between Latif and the team management again surfaced in 2003-2004, which resulted in him giving away the captaincy to former Pakistan batsman Inzamam-ul-Haq. He was omitted from the squad and since then was never recalled in the team, despite his attempts to get back into the squad during 2003-2005.

In April 2006, Latif has retired from First class cricket as he toured with the Pakistani senior players to play against Indian senior players in April 2006. This series is played between players who have retired from professional cricket. Also, according to statistics available on ESPN cricinfo sport's website, it can be seen that Latif has not participated in first class cricket since 2005. His last international match was in 2006, when he played for Lashings cricket club, a club in England.

Coaching career[link]

Latif has notably became batting coach of the Afghanistan National Cricket team ^[2] Latif also stated that the Afghan players were keen to learn from him.^[3] Latif further added that he liked the challenge of coaching the team and helping at grass-roots level of Afghan Cricket ^[4] in July 2010 he also talked about having a Pakistan-Afghanistan cricket series in late 2010 to help Pakistan return to staging international cricket.^[5] As a wicket-keeper Latif also commented on the form of Pakistani wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal by stating that "Kamran has gained weight for a wicket-keeper, his wicket-keeping has been poor due to that and a lot of work load as a cricketer. I strongly suggest to all wicket-keepers that when they are struggling they take a rest and then comeback to the scene stronger as poor wicket-keeping can destroy you confidence as a batsman."^[6] In August 2010 the coach of the Afghan team Kabir Khan announced that he was going to leave his post because of consistent interference by the board. This led to Latif who was batting coach at the time to be named his successor. However just after that Latif announced his resignation also citing consistent interference caused by the board.^[7]

In 2010, Latif responded to the spot fixing allegations against the Pakistan team by saying that ICC needs to re-design its laws and rules to root out the match fixing and spot fixing problem. Latif wrote a letter to the ICC citing his concerns back in 2003,"In that letter, I told them to change the rules and laws in one-day internationals which, were more prone to spot-fixing. I even offered to assist the ICC's Anti-Corruption and Security Unit but I got no response," he said.

"The key is to design laws and rules that do not allow players and bookmakers to manipulate things. I told the ICC remove the fielding restrictions and they introduced the power-play which only encouraged fixing."^[8]

Following this statement Latif resigned from his job as wicket-keeping coach at the Pakistan National Cricket Academy and subsequently reconciled with the Afghan Cricket Board and returned as the team's coach ^[1] He stated that his aim was to help the team get the status to play Test cricket in two years time.^[9] Latif also stated that he believed that a broad-cast delay of 30 seconds would help curb fixing.^[10]

Latif's stint as Afghan coach got of to a good start when Afghanistan registered a 162 run win of Kenya in the ICC Intercontinental Cup but then lost the first ODI by 92 runs as Kenya were bowled out for 160. But then Afghanistan's batting order collapsed for 88. The team took a six-wicket victory during the second ODI as Kenya sucummbed to 139 and Afghanistan's suffered a poor start with opener Noor Ali retiring hurt and Karim Sadiq being caught. However Asghar Stanikzai scored his second half-century and along with Mohammad Shahzad who scored 37 guided the run chase.^[11] The finest moment of Latif's coaching career came at the 2010 Asian Games when Afghanistan upset the cricket super-power Pakistan in the semi-final as Afghanistan sealed a comfortable 22-run victory and setup a final tie with Bangladesh.^[12] However Afghanistan lost the final but the celebrated accomplishment was that the Afghanistan collected their first ever Asian games medal with a second place silver.

Latif's team next assignment was the ICC Intercontinental Cup and Afghanistan play Scotland in the final. Latif stated that Afghanistan likes to play aggressive cricket and that the players are mentally very tough and hate to lose.^[13] On 2 December the match against Scotland started and because of Hamid Hassan Scotland were bowled out for 212. More than have of scotlands runs came from Neil McCallum who scored 104*. Afghanistan got of to a good start but collapsed to 171 all out. Giving Scotland a 41 run lead. Despite this another great bowling performance from Hassan and Samiullah Shenwari meant that Scotland were skittled for just 82 in their second innings. On the third day Afghanistan sealed victory early in the day with seven-wickets in hand courtesy of a superb 56* by Mohammad Shahzad.^[14]

Centuries by Rashid Latif[link]

Test Cricket centuries[link]

• In the column Runs, * indicates being not out
• The column title Match refers to the Match Number of the player's career

Test Cricket centuries of Rashid Latif

	Runs	Match	Against	City/Country	Venue	Year
[1]	150	28	West Indies	Sharjah, UAE	Sharjah Cricket Association Stadium	2002

See also[link]

• Rashid Latif Cricket Academy (RLCA)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Player profile: Rashid Latif from ESPNcricinfo
• Player profile: Rashid Latif from CricketArchive
• Player Profile: Rashid Latif from Yahoo! Cricket
• Rashid Latif Cricket Academy
• Lashings Cricket Club
• Rashid Latif's Official website
• PakPassion

v t e Pakistan squad – 1996 Cricket World Cup 1 Wasim Akram (c) 2 Aamer Sohail (Vice-captain) 3 Aaqib Javed 4 Ata-ur-Rehman 5 Ijaz Ahmed 6 Inzamam-ul-Haq 7 Javed Miandad 8 Mushtaq Ahmed 9 Rameez Raja 10 Rashid Latif (wk) 11 Saeed Anwar 12 Saleem Malik 13 Saqlain Mushtaq 14 Waqar Younis

v t e Pakistan squad – 2003 Cricket World Cup 1 Waqar Younis (c) 2 Abdul Razzaq 3 Azhar Mahmood 4 Inzamam-ul-Haq 5 Mohammad Sami 6 Rashid Latif (wk) 7 Saeed Anwar 8 Saleem Elahi 9 Saqlain Mushtaq 10 Shahid Afridi 11 Shoaib Akhtar 12 Taufeeq Umar 13 Wasim Akram 14 Younis Khan 15 Yousuf Youhana Coach: Richard Pybus

Roshan Siriwardene Mahanama (born 31 May 1966 in Colombo) is a former Sri Lankan cricketer and currently an ICC match referee.^[1]

Although he averaged less than 30 at Test cricket, he did score four centuries, including a top score of 225 for the Sri Lankan cricket team against India at Colombo, where he shared a then world record second wicket partnership of 576 runs with Sanath Jayasuriya.^[2] This record was surpassed in July 2006 as the largest partnership in Test match history by fellow Sri Lankans Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene who put on 624 against South Africa.^[3]

Roshan Mahanama was the stylish batsman in Sri Lankan cricket side. He established himself as stylish opening batsman in late 80's & early 90's. In W.C. 1992, Roshan Mahanama performed as opening batsman along with M.A.R. Samarasekera & U.C. Hathurusingha. During the captaincy of Aravinda de silva in early 90's, Roshan Mahanama was a consistent opening batsman. In W.C. 1992, Roshan Mahanama scored: 59 runs off 89 balls v.s. Zimbabwe, 80 runs off 131 balls v.s. New Zealand & 68 runs off 121 balls v.s. South Africa. During 1995/96, whenever Roshan Mahanama gets out, Aravinda de Silva gets out easily.

Roshan is the 36th Sri Lanka Test Cap [Sri Lanka Vs Pakistan at Colombo 1985/86].^[4]

'Retired hurt' is common parlance in cricket, but that is the name former Sri Lankan cricketer Roshan Mahanama chose for his biography, reflecting his feelings after he was not considered for selection in the One-dayers and Tests, following the team's disastrous showing in the 1999 World Cup.

The authorities told Roshan that he was dropped to groom young talent. But then players older than he was found a place, and that hurt the veteran. As a matter of principle and self-respect he decided to hang up his boots.

These facts are mentioned in the book 'Retired hurt,' penned by noted Australian sports chronicler Ken Piesse, based on 40 hours of taped narration on Roshan's experience on and off the field.

Career Performance[link]

Player Statistics[link]

Test Centuries[link]

The following table illustrates a summary of the Test centuries scored by Roshan Mahanama

• In the column Runs, * indicates being not out
• The column title Match refers to the Match Number of the player's career

Test Centuries of Roshan Mahanama
	Runs	Match	Against	City/Country	Venue	Year
[1]	153	15	New Zealand	Moratuwa, Sri Lanka	Tyronne Fernando Stadium	1992
[2]	109	16	New Zealand	Colombo, Sri Lanka	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground	1992
[3]	151	20	India	Colombo, Sri Lanka	P. Saravanamuttu Stadium	1993
[4]	225	44	India	Colombo, Sri Lanka	R. Premadasa Stadium	1997

v t e Sri Lanka squad – 1987 Cricket World Cup 1 Mendis (c) 2 Anurasiri 3 De Mel 4 De Silva 5 Dias 6 Garusinha 7 Jeganathan 8 John 9 Kuruppu (wk) 10 Madugalle 11 Mahanama 12 Ranatunga 13 RJ Ratnayake 14 JR Ratnayeke

v t e Sri Lanka squad – 1992 Cricket World Cup 1 De Silva (c) 2 Anurasiri 3 Gurusinha 4 Hathurusingha 5 Jayasuriya 6 Kalpage 7 Mahanama 8 Ramanayake 9 Ranatunga 10 Ratnayake 11 Samarasekera 12 Tillakaratne (wk) 13 Wickramasinghe 14 Wijegunawardene

v t e Sri Lanka squad – 1996 Cricket World Cup (1st Title) 1 Ranatunga (c) 2 Atapattu 3 Chandana 4 De Silva 5 Dharmasena 6 Gurusinha 7 Kaluwitharana (wk) 8 Jayasuriya 9 Mahanama 10 Muralitharan 11 Pushpakumara 12 Tillakaratne 13 Vaas 14 Wickramasinghe Coach: Whatmore

v t e Sri Lanka squad – 1999 Cricket World Cup 1 Ranatunga (c) 2 Muralitharan 3 Atapattu 4 Jayawardene 5 Mahanama 6 Tillakaratne 7 Kaluwitharana (wk) 8 Vaas 9 De Silva 10 Wickramasinghe 11 Kalpage 12 Chandana 13 Upashantha 14 Hathurusingha 15 Jayasuriya Coach: Dias

See also[link]

• 100 Runs Test Cricket Partnerships by Sri Lanka
• Ananda-Nalanda

References[link]

External links[link]

• Player profile: Roshan Mahanama from ESPNcricinfo
• Player profile: Roshan Mahanama from CricketArchive

Ian Andrew Healy (nicknamed "Heals") (born 30 April 1964) is a former cricketer who played for Queensland and Australia. A specialist wicketkeeper and useful right-hand middle-order batsman, he made an unheralded entry to international cricket in 1988, after only six first-class games. His work ethic and combativeness was much needed by an Australian team that was performing poorly. Over the next decade, Healy was a key member of the side as it enjoyed a sustained period of success. By the time of his retirement, Healy held the world record for most Test dismissals by a wicket-keeper.

Healy was a very useful batsman and improved dramatically during the second half of his career. All of his four first-class centuries were scored in Test matches. He could be handy as a hitter late in the innings during ODIs: he averaged 21 while scoring at a rate of 83.8 runs per hundred balls. Although touted as a potential leader of the team early in his career, a series of on-field misdemeanours counted against him when the position was vacant. He captained Australia in eight ODIs when the regular skipper Mark Taylor was injured.

Early days[link]

Born in the Brisbane suburb of Spring Hill, Healy was educated at Brisbane State High School. Healy and his family relocated 600 km north to the small town of Biloela in 1972, due to his father’s transfer in his job as a bank manager.^[1] Rod Marsh inspired Healy to take up wicket-keeping; he also played basketball, soccer, squash and rugby league.^[2] He represented the Queensland under-11 team and later attended a clinic conducted by the touring Queensland cricketers. The team’s wicket-keeper John Maclean gave him some specialist coaching, which gave his junior career further impetus.^[1]

During his later years in the town, Healy played alongside adults, which accelerated his progress.^[2] Returning to Brisbane with his family at the age of 17, he joined the Northern Suburbs club in Brisbane’s grade competition in 1982. After three matches for the Queensland Colts as a specialist batsman, Healy made his first-class debut in 1986–87 as a replacement for the injured Peter Anderson. However, Anderson remained the first choice as the state’s wicketkeeper for the next eighteen months, during which time Healy managed only six first-class appearances.

International career[link]

Given his small number of games for Queensland, Healy’s selection for the Australian team to tour Pakistan in late 1988 was a major surprise.^[1] The wicket-keeping position had proved a problem for Australia since the 1984 retirement of Healy’s boyhood hero, Rod Marsh. Wayne B. Phillips, Tim Zoehrer, Greg Dyer and Steve Rixon had all been tried with little success. Australian selector Greg Chappell had watched Healy’s progress in Queensland, and believed that he offered the lower-order batting stability and determined approach to the game that the Australian team was lacking.^[2]

By his own admission, Healy was overwhelmed by his sudden elevation and took some time to settle in to the team. The selectors persevered with him through the difficult Pakistan tour^[2] and the subsequent home series against the West Indies, even though Australia lost both series.

An improvement in the team’s performances coincided with Healy’s establishment as a Test-class player. On the tour of England in 1989, he was safe behind the stumps in taking 14 Test catches, but averaged only 17.16 with the bat, as Australia won 4–0 to regain the Ashes. In seven Tests against New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Pakistan during the extended season of 1989–90, Healy accepted 23 catches and recorded a top score of 48.

First century[link]

Although Australia lost the series with the West Indies and drew with New Zealand in 1992–93, the team had a successful tour of England in 1993 when Healy hit his maiden Test century. His form had gradually improved, culminating in an unbeaten 102 at Old Trafford when he dominated a partnership with Steve Waugh. With the introduction to the team of Shane Warne, Healy was able to demonstrate his skills standing up to the stumps and reading the varied deliveries of the spinner.^[3] In his first 39 Tests, Healy stumped two batsmen. In 14 Tests between 1992 and 1993, he stumped ten batsmen while taking 52 catches.

Ian Healy's Test career batting performance.

Healy followed up with another century, against New Zealand at Perth in 1993–94. Healy was also well known for his energy and optimism behind the stumps, and could frequently be heard on effects microphones encouraging the rest of the team, perhaps most prominently praise of Shane Warne, expressed as 'bowling, Warnie'. Notable too was his attitude to injuries; despite breaking all of his fingers during his thirteen-year career he only ever missed one Test match, replaced by Phil Emery in Pakistan.

Healy twice captained an Australian XI, in tour matches against the West Indians in 1991–92 and 1992–93. In 1993, he led an official Australian team at the Hong Kong six-a-side tournament and replaced Allan Border as captain of Queensland in 1992–93. However, when Border retired at the end of the 1994 tour of South Africa, Healy was not seen as viable successor as Australian captain for two reasons. Firstly, only one wicket-keeper had led Australia in the previous one hundred years.^[1] Secondly, his various on-field confrontations were sometimes held against him.^[2]

Omitted from ODI team[link]

Australia made the much-debated decision to separate the teams for playing Tests and ODIs for the 1997–98 season. This affected Healy and the captain, Mark Taylor, both of whom were dropped from the ODI team.^[4] Sri Lanka won the 1996 World Cup utilising a strategy of ultra-aggressive opening batsmen hitting as many runs as possible in the early overs of the innings. Adam Gilchrist, a wicket-keeper himself, had displayed the potential to play this type of game since his ODI debut the previous year. Gilchrist then became the ODI team’s wicket-keeper as well, allowing Australia to play an extra specialist (bowler or batsman) in the batting place previously occupied by Healy. Both Healy and Taylor made their disappointment with the decision known. However, Gilchrist hit a brilliant century during the finals of the Carlton and United Series, which Australia won after failing to qualify for the previous season.^[4] Healy finished his ODI career with a world record 233 dismissals, a mark since overtaken by Gilchrist, Mark Boucher, Moin Khan and Kumar Sangakkara.^[5]

Healy maintained his Test place, beginning the season with scores of 68 at Brisbane and 85 at Perth against New Zealand. His only other innings of substance was 46 not out against South Africa in the second Test at Sydney. On the subsequent tour of India, Healy top-scored with 90 in the first Test at Chennai, which Australia lost.

World records[link]

On 4 October 1998, Healy broke Rod Marsh's world record of 355 dismissals when he caught Wasim Akram from the bowling of Colin Miller, during the first Test against Pakistan at Rawalpindi. It was his 104th Test compared with Marsh's 96 Tests.^[6] Healy ended with 395 dismissals from 119 Tests. This tally was subsequently overtaken by South African wicketkeeper Mark Boucher (in his 103rd test, 16 fewer than Healy) and other Australian wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist in his 96th test which was his last. Boucher is currently the world record holder.

He also jointly holds the record in Test cricket (along with Mark Taylor) of being the only cricketers to have been run out in both innings of a Test on two occasions.^[7]

Forlorn farewell[link]

After four months off, the Australian team toured Sri Lanka in August and September 1999. In the three Tests, Healy made only 25 runs and took four catches. The team made a brief visit to Zimbabwe the following month, to play the inaugural Test between the two nations, at Harare. Healy made five and took two catches.

During the lead-up to the 1999–2000 season, the selectors made it clear that they wanted Adam Gilchrist to keep for the Test team as well as the ODI side. Initially, Healy requested that he be allowed to play one more season and then retire, which was refused. He then asked to play the first Test, scheduled for his home ground at Brisbane, as a farewell. This, too, was refused, so he announced his immediate retirement from all forms of the game in a statement released on 28 October 1999.^[8] In response to the tremendous public farewells afforded to Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Justin Langer at the end of the fifth Test at Sydney in 2006–07, Healy called for long-standing players to have their farewells to the game managed more appropriately than his own.^[9]

Post retirement[link]

Healy's performances were acknowledged when he was selected as the wicketkeeper in the Australian Cricket Board's team of the 20th century, ahead of greats such as Rod Marsh, Wally Grout and Don Tallon. He was also recognised as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1994. Since retiring he has gone on to a career as a news presenter for Channel Nine in Brisbane, as well as coaching the Somerville House cricket team. Healy (since 1999) has been a cricket commentator. In 2008 he was inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame.

Controversies[link]

Breast cancer incident[link]

In the 07/08 summer of cricket season, Andrew Symonds guest commentated for the Nine Network. Whilst Symonds was talking about raising money for breast cancer research, Healy, unaware that he was on camera, gesticulated playing a tiny violin for which he was criticized. He made a public apology to women who had suffered breast cancer. He later drank a litre of Jim Beam in an hour.^[10]

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Cricinfo page on Ian Healy
• HowSTAT! statistical profile on Ian Healy