Gary Gilmour

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This article is about the Australian cricketer. For the American murderer, see Gary Gilmore.

	Tests	ODIs
Gary Gilmour Australia (Aus)

Batting style	Left-hand bat
Bowling type	Left-arm fast-medium
Matches	15	5
Runs scored	483	42
Batting average	23.00	42.00
100s/50s	1/3	-/-
Top score	101	28*
Balls bowled	2661	320
Wickets	54	16
Bowling average	26.03	10.31
5 wickets in innings	3	2
10 wickets in match	-	n/a
Best bowling	6/85	6/14
Catches/stumpings	8/-	2/-
As of 12 December 2005 Source: Cricinfo.com

Gary John Gilmour (born June 26, 1951, Waratah, New South Wales) is a former Australian cricketer who played in 15 Tests and 5 ODIs from 1973 to 1977. At the peak of his career, Gary Gilmour combined spectacular, free-hitting batting with penetrative left-arm swing bowling and the ability to hang on to a blinding catch in the slips cordon. From the start of his first class career,he earned comparisons with the great Alan Davidson, who was also a product of New South Wales' central coast. A score of 122 on his debut for New South Wales in January 1972, first caught the eye of the Australian selectors, who weren't afraid to blood him at age 22 during an "experimental" season. Gilmour's Test debut consisted of 52 runs and took 4 for 75 in a big win over New Zealand at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. However, he only appeared in two of the next five Tests, as Australia rotated through a number of players with an eye on the Ashes series later in the year. Gilmour gave them something to ponder with seven wickets in a Test at Auckland, which included 5 for 64 in the first innings to set up a series-tying victory.

Competition for fast bowling places in the Australian team was intense at this time. Gilmour wasn't selected for the 1974-75 Ashes series, but reappeared in green and gold when selected for the 1975 England tour, which included the inaugural World Cup. The Australians, ineperienced at one-day cricket, adopted a casual yet aggressive approach, often employing a full slips cordon for their opening bowlers. Gilmour was twelth man in the early stages of the tournament, but selected for the semi final against England at Headingley. On a day tailor-made for his style of bowling, he finished with 12 overs, six for 14, thus boweling out the opposition for 93. With the Australians almost defeated at 6 for 39 in reply, Gilmouir thrashed 28 not out to push his team into the final. Although Australia lost the final to West Indies, Gilmour bagged another five wickets. In the following Ashes series, Gilmour was only called on at Headlingley, partly because of his World Cup effort there. He bagged 6 for 85 in the first innings, three more in the second innings, yet was dropped for the last Test.

In 1975-76, Gilmour raised prospects that he was about to realise his potential. Playing five of the six Tests against the West Indies, Gilmour topped the bowling averages with 20 wickets at 20.3 and was given the new ball ahead of Dennis Lillee at Sydney. Although Gilmour's batting was still somewhat erratic, he thrashed 95 at Adelaide. The following summer aginst Pakistan, an injury to Jeff Thomson denuded the Australian attack, which was carried largely by Lillee, Gilmour delivering eight wickets in three Tests at 37.5. A brief tour to New Zealand followed, on which it became clear that Gilmour was struggling with a leg injury. His batting, hitherto unremarkable, won him a place in the record books in the first Test at Christchurch. Gilmour hit his only Test century, 101 in 146 balls and 187 minutes, combining with Doug Walters for an Australian record seventh-wicket partnership of 217. But Gilmour's powers as a bowler ebbed dramatically, so much so that he bowled only nine inconsequential overs in the Centenary Test at Melbourne in March 1977. The debilitating foot injury was a handicap: it turned out to be a mis-diagnosed ; so was a light-hearted attitude to training and fitness that owed more to the 1950s than to the increasingly professional era of which he was part.

Playing against England in the semi-final of the 1975 World Cup, Gilmour recorded outstanding bowling figures of 6-14 from 12 overs. This was the first time that a bowler had taken six wickets in an ODI, and remained the best ODI bowling performance until Winston Davis claimed 7-51 in the 1983 competition. ^[1]