'...in which case it's accurate': Gilchrist reacts to being named 'richer' than Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli
Australia great Adam Gilchrist was recently named at the top of a list of the richest cricketers in the world.
A list of richest cricketers in the world which was recently released on Twitter had caused a bit of a flutter on social media. The list featured some of the names that one would expect like India's Virat Kohli, Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni and Virender Sehwag, Australia's Steve Smith and Ricky Ponting and West Indies great Brian Lara among others.
However, the name that seemed to surprise everyone was that of Adam Gilchrist. While it is possible for Gilchrist to be in a list like this considering the long and illustrious career he had in international cricket and the IPL, what surprised netizens was the fact that the Australian wicketkeeping great was placed at the top of the list by a great margin.
In the list on Twitter, Gilchrist is shown to have an estimated worth of "$380 million" while second placed Tendulkar is shown to be worth $170 million. It had later emerged through some fact checkers on the internet that those compiling the list probably confused Gilchrist with the CEO of F45 Training, a chain of fitness centres that originated in Australia, whose name is also Adam Gilchrist.
The Australian former wicketkeeper himself confirmed the same in a rather tongue-in-cheek manner on Thursday. "A case of mistaken identity here folks. Unless of course my namesake who founded F45 played cricket, in which case it’s completely accurate #doyourresearch #fakenews #yasafesachin," said Gilchrist while quote-tweeting the list that was put out by the Twitter handle called 'World Index'.
Considered one of the greatest wicketkeeper-batters of all time, Gilchrist is credited to have redefined the role of glovemen through his aggressive batting. He scored 5570 runs in 96 Test matches at an average of 47.60 with 17 centuries and 9619 runs in 287 ODIs at an average of 35.89 with 16 centuries. Gilchrist boasted a strike rate of 81.95 accross 137 innings in Test cricket and 96.94 in 279 ODI innings. He was an integral part of the Australian teams that won the 1999, 2003 and 2007 World Cups. While Gilchrist first played under Steve Waugh and then Ricky Ponting, he also captained Australia in six Tests and 17 ODIs. He was famously captain of the team that won two Test matches in India in the 2004/05 tour which gave them first Test series win in the country since 1970. It remains Australia's last Test series win in India.