Australian women’s cricket star Alyssa Healy is the latest top wicket-keeper to reject Michael Vaughan’s radical idea to use two glovemen in a job-sharing role as Alex Carey continues his push towards greatness. Vaughan – the former England skipper – has previously floated a proposal for Test sides to consider alternating their keepers during games when there are two keeper-batters in the starting XI.
Many sides in all three formats of the game carry two keeper-batters, with Australia currently employing Carey and Josh Inglis in the same team. “There’s that many keeper-batters around the world – and you’re only going to have one keeper at the minute in terms of the traditions of the game – but would it affect a wicket-keeper to have dual roles behind the stumps?” Vaughan asked a year ago.
Alyssa Healy (R) isn’t a fan of Michael Vaughan’s idea to switch between wicket-keepers like Alex Carey (L). Image: Getty
“You may have one who’s better stood back and one who’s better stood up in terms of spin. Test match cricket is a long format, there’s loads of time, loads of hours out in the middle. Is it getting to the stage where a keeper doesn’t have to keep all the time for his team? So, you swap it around in terms of the situation.”
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Australia’s greatest wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist was no fan of Vaughan’s idea. He said: “I hear the theory but I don’t think it plays out in practice. I wouldn’t have liked to get told that you’ve got to take a break and someone else is going to do the next 50 overs.
“A lot of wicket-keeping, particularly in long-format cricket, is building up a partnership and relationship with your bowler. It’s vitally important. You get rhythm and understanding. The greatest experience of my career was to wicket-keep to Shane Warne and at the end of that over you go and do the same thing to Glenn McGrath.”
Australia have two keepers in Josh Inglis (L) and Alex Carey (R) in their Test XI. (Photo by RANDY BROOKS/AFP via Getty Images)
Alyssa Healy not a fan of sharing keeper duties
After watching Carey’s brilliant ton in the Adelaide Test – on top of his superb keeping throughout the Ashes series to date – Healy has now added her weight to the argument. “I might be old school in my thinking, but no,” she told Fox Cricket.
“There’s an art and rhythm to wicket-keeping where you can get into the fixture. I feel like chopping and changing wouldn’t work.”
Carey’s Ashes form with bat and gloves during the Ashes makes Vaughan’s idea redundant for now – at least for Australia – but could be adopted by other countries in the future. When Vaughan initially proposed his job-sharing proposal, he suggested England could prosper by using Jonny Bairstow and Jamie Smith in that capacity.