Just after lunch on the fourth day of the Centenary Test at the MCG in 1977, the classroom speaker at my Perth primary school crackled into life with the muffled voices of the ABC radio.<\/p>\n
Our teacher demanded we stop what we were doing because history was about to be made. Perhaps Queen Elizabeth, who was in Australia on her Silver Jubilee tour of the Commonwealth, was about to address her colonial subjects with a momentous announcement?<\/p>\n
A thunderous bluster from the tiny speaker filled the room as the teacher proudly declared that Rod Marsh had just become the first Australian wicketkeeper to score a Test century against England.<\/p>\n
The pugnacious Western Australian, who had the reckless bravery of a bare-knuckle fighter at a travelling agricultural show, revolutionised world cricket because he was the first player to be selected for Australia for his batting ability rather than his glovework. It\u2019s a template that most cricketing nations have been copying ever since, with varying degrees of success.<\/p>\n
Before Marsh, keepers resembled buttoned-up bureaucrats selected for being skilled artisans capable of perhaps crafting a few valuable runs alongside the tail. However, Marsh\u2019s lightning-fast reactions and gravity-defying acrobatics also made him the finest gloveman Australia has produced.<\/p>\n
Years later, Adam Gilchrist transformed the role once again with his belligerent and brutal batting, but he wasn\u2019t always that deft behind the stumps. Australia\u2019s insatiable thirst to find a genuine all-rounder who could abruptly alter the course of a game from No 7 meant sacrificing the odd catch or stumping.<\/p>\n
Until now.<\/p>\n
Australia\u2019s current keeper, Alex Carey, might not be as bludgeoning or breathtaking with the willow as Gilchrist, but he has redefined the craft of keeping with his masterclass in the second Ashes Test in Brisbane<\/a>.<\/p>\n Carey takes the crucial catch to dismiss Ben Stokes. Photograph: Cameron Spencer\/Getty Images<\/p>\n There\u2019s a ubiquitous saying that the best keepers go unnoticed, but Carey\u2019s performance was so mesmerising that the cricket world is calling it one of the most extraordinary Ashes wicketkeeping efforts.<\/p>\n The 34-year-old\u2019s display behind the pegs would have won him the man of the match award if it wasn\u2019t for another dazzling display from Mitchell Starc<\/a> with the bat and ball. Nevertheless, a conga line of past players were left stunned by Carey\u2019s game-changing ability to stand up to the stumps to seamers.<\/p>\n Former master gloveman Ian Healy said, \u201cwe have to go all the way back to Don Tallon for this sort of keeping performance\u201d. Brad Haddin praised Carey on Triple M radio, claiming \u201cyou\u2019ll never see a better keeping display or a braver keeping display than this\u201d. Captain Steve Smith was less eloquent, simply calling him a freak.<\/p>\n Carey is not the first player to stand up to fast-medium pacers, but rarely has there been such a flawless display of keeping. He showed unbelievable reflexes to catch dangerman Ben Stokes off the bowling of Michael Neser. The South Australian didn\u2019t flinch as he meticulously grasped the thick outside edge off the England captain\u2019s bat.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Subscribe to our cricket newsletter for our writers’ thoughts on the biggest stories and a review of the week\u2019s action<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Carey finished the Test with seven catches, including an absolute screamer to dismiss Gus Atkinson after running back with the flight of the ball. The keeper also made a crucial 63 in the first innings, which paved the way for Starc and Scott Boland to bat out the daylight hours, where the pink ball was at its dullest.<\/p>\n Remarkably, Carey revealed after the match that he didn\u2019t practice standing up to the quicks in training because it was probably a little bit too dangerous, and he just let his instincts take over.<\/p>\n Alex Carey celebrates with Marnus Labuschagne after a brilliant catch to dismiss Gus Atikinson. Photograph: Jono Searle\/AAP<\/p>\n Carey didn\u2019t exactly set the world on fire when he replaced Tim Paine as Australia\u2019s wicketkeeper for the 2021 Ashes series. There were lofty expectations and it wasn\u2019t long before Carey was feeling the pressure to retain his spot after dropping a couple of sitters in the Boxing Day Test against England. He also struggled with the delicate art of batting with the tailenders.<\/p>\n But it wasn\u2019t long before he carved out an elegant maiden Test century against South Africa the following year. Ironically, he was the first keeper to bring up a ton at the MCG since Marsh\u2019s unbeaten 110 in the second innings of the Centenary Test.<\/p>\n As Carey\u2019s career continues to flourish, the comments of Australia\u2019s former tormentor Stuart Broad \u2013 that the keeper would only be remembered for his controversial stumping of England\u2019s Jonny Bairstow at Lord\u2019s \u2013 haven\u2019t aged well.<\/p>\n It\u2019s unlikely that Carey will ever reach the stellar heights of Marsh behind the stumps. However, after a brilliant year with the bat in 2025, his current average of 35 is the second-highest for an Australian keeper after Gilchrist. In modern-day cricket, wicketkeepers are expected to be handy with the bat, but after his performance in Brisbane, Carey is unquestionably the premier gloveman in world cricket.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just after lunch on the fourth day of the Centenary Test at the MCG in 1977, the classroom…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334199,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-334198","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cricket","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}