Born: Bellingen, NSW
14 November, 1971
Adam Gilchrist, born in the northern New South Wales town of Bellingen on November 14, 1971, retired from international cricket in 2008 widely acclaimed as the greatest-ever wicketkeeper-batsman in Tests and one-day internationals.
He moved to Western Australia in August 1994 after struggling to gain a permanent place in the NSW side and quickly developed into a highly-accomplished wicketkeeper and an enterprising and aggressive left-hand batsman.
A marvellous entertainer, his explosive hitting delighted the fans and demoralised the opposition.
When he retired he was the only player to have hit a hundred sixes in Test history, he held the record number of dismissals in Tests (416) and ODIs (472), his 17 Test centuries and 16 ODI hundreds were the most by a wicketkeeper. He holds the unique record of scoring at least 50 in successive World Cup finals (54 in 1999, 57 in 2003 and 149 in 2007) and is one of only three men to have played in three World Cup wins.
In the third Ashes Test at the WACA Ground in December 2006 Gilchrist hammered four sixes and 12 fours in reaching his century off 57 deliveries, the second fastest century in Test cricket.
A Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 2002 and the one-day international player of the year in 2003 and 2004, Gilchrist was inducted into Sport Australia’s Hall of Fame in 2012 and the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame in 2015.