Gilchrist gloves glove-making controversy.

Lyall Johnson
February 29, 2008

YOU simply get given them, train with them, then wear them in a game. Nothing sinister in that.

That was Adam Gilchrist's take on the Mahendra Singh Dhoni wicketkeeping glove saga after it emerged the Australian keeper's gloves were made by the same company that makes Dhoni's.

While stating that New Zealand match referee Jeff Crowe said Dhoni's gloves were illegal, the Australian vice-captain yesterday defended Dhoni and the glove manufacturer, India's Sunrising Sportings Goods, which also hand-stitches his gloves before they are rebranded with the Puma logo.

"I know the gentleman that makes them and they're the best in the world, they're brilliant. Maybe you just, in the manufacturing process — they're all hand-made and hand-stitched — so they may have just used a little bit too much leather in that area," he said.

"I have absolutely no doubt that he hasn't intentionally done that and tried to get away or pull the wool over anyone's eyes.

"We're spoiled for choice, we just get gear, you put it on, you train in it. So I don't think they were glaringly obvious to be different to what, say, I use or anyone else at the moment, or what is legal at the moment."

Gilchrist added that he has match referees check his gloves about once a summer to ensure they are within the regulations and he has never had any issue.

And he added that the problem with Dhoni's gloves was only slight and was in no way an attempt to return to the gloves of a decade ago, which were beginning to resemble baseball mitts. "They're nothing like what we were wearing when I first started my career, we were wearing gloves (that) were almost like a baseball mitt," he said.

"I remember at the time when they changed it, I sort of thought 'they're kidding aren't they, what's the big deal?' But on reflection they were getting out of hand and the ones that Dhoni was using the other day are nothing like that.

"It is not a case (that) they tried to slip back to the gloves of nine years ago that had (a) really big pouch in the glove. Far from that, I promise you I'm not accusing anyone of that. He was just too good for himself, Dhoni, took too good a catch and exposed it I suppose, the fact that there was a little discrepancy there."

He predicted more policing of wicketkeeping gloves would be the result of the incident.

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