Adam Gilchrist has revealed the content material of a textual content message which the late Shane Warne despatched to him hours earlier than he died of a suspected coronary heart assault in Thailand. Warne’s shock loss of life has resulted in an outpouring of grief from the world over along with his Australian teammates recalling the time they spent collectively.
Gilchrist spoke to Warne per week earlier than his loss of life and was chatting with the legendary bowler who despatched him a congratulatory textual content for his tribute to the late Rod Marsh.
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“I spoke to Shane a few week in the past,” Gilchrist told ABC News. “I received a really nice text from him. Probably, I am assuming this was eight hours before he passed away. He was just sending me a message. He was one of the few guys that consistently called me church. It’s a nickname only those in the inner circle knew about – about being confused by a young English fan and they called me ‘Eric Gilchurch’. He always called me ‘Churchy’ and it always felt like a term of endearment from a friend.”
“He messaged me saying, ‘Church, wonderful tribute to Rod Marsh’. Which I used to be very honoured to do a voice over. We weren’t even near coming to phrases with the passing of my childhood hero in Rod Marsh and one other legend of the cricket world. Warnie simply messaged me and mentioned ‘well done on that sir’. So that was the final contact. It’s a textual content message I’ll by no means delete,” he added.
Gilchrist said keeping wickets to Warne’s legs-spin bowling was the highlight of his cricketing career.
“It was the highlight of my cricketing career, simple as that. Forget the runs and everything, to keep wicket to Shane Warne… Ian Healy and I pretty much exclusively had the best seat in the house to watch a maestro at work. It all started at the top of his bowling mark. In fact, it actually started when he took his hat off. And the crowd knew that he was about to come on to bowl. Give the hat to the umpire, get to the top of the mark,” Gilchrist mentioned.
“And then the theatrics. It was nearly like a movie director… a Spielberg kind persona there. Just pulling the strings and setting all the things and constructing it up… to the second, when he invariably bought his prey. It was a tremendous angle and I’d say {that a} very shut and private a part of my journey was that keeper-bowler relationship with Shane,” he added.
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