Ever since excerpts from Adam Gilchrist’s autobiography True Colours were released in late 2008, I have been itching to lay my hands on the book for one simple reason. Gilchrist is one of my favourite cricketers and naturally, I wanted to get a deeper insight on the life of an all-time cricketing great. Having finally read it, I can claim with some authority that just like with his batting, Gilchrist doesn’t disappoint with his writing as well.
True Colours reveals a lot about a cricketer who came across as this swashbuckling batsman bubbling with confidence, when, in fact, he was the exact opposite of his public persona.
The man surprises you with honest and candid confessions pertaining to his paranoia about his talent and ability. When you saw him on the field you could have never made out that he suffered from a lack of confidence.
But Gilchrist calls himself “the eternal worrier, a man who always expected the worst” and often wondered whether he was good enough to play at the highest level. The pattern continued till late in his career.
From an early age, Gilchrist’s life revolved around sports. Having a father who played cricket at the state level, and two brothers who too tried their hand at cricket, only strengthened his resolve to make it big. But Australia, being a cricketing powerhouse, never had a shortage of world-class players, so even a player of Gilchrist’s calibre had to wait till the age of 27 to make his debut.
Much before he made his debut, he switched states, moving to Western Australia from New South Wales. You don’t often picture Adam Gilchrist as the pantomime villain but that’s what he became. First he replaced Tim Zoherer, the local legend at Western Australia, and then Ian Healy in the national team.
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What makes the book interesting is that Gilchrist comes clean on the various controversies that cropped up during his career. Be it his love-hate relationships with teammates like Shane Warne and Michael Slater, or the Monkeygate scandal which erupted when India toured in 2008, though you do feel that he could have devoted more space to the latter, since the scandal shook the entire cricketing world.
Nevertheless, as I said earlier, it’s a pretty candid account but there are quite a few instances in the book that make you wonder: If champion cricketers like Gilchrist have moments of self doubt, then what would lesser mortals be going through?
Consider an entire chapter in the book where Gilchrist writes of times when he absolutely hated cricket. And it’s ironical because it happened when he was at an all-time high in his career. For instance, he writes, “My batting has been so high, and I’m struggling to deal with it being so low. Have I lost it? ... Should I keep playing? Why should I keep playing? For what reasons?” Thrice in his career, he came close to calling it quits but his family, teammates and advisors egged him on to prolong his career.
You won’t find many cricketers admitting openly — even after retirement — that they are emotional people, let alone crying their eyes out. But Gilchrist is an exception and makes no bones about revealing his emotional side.
One of the most interesting passages of the book is where Gilchrist talks about the “cape of bravado” that most cricketers don. While the public image, especially the Aussies’, is of aggressive men — at times over the top, not willing to yield an inch — the reality is that even they at times find it hard to mask their troubles, and that’s where the cape of bravado comes in.
After reading the book I found it to hard to fathom the hue and cry in the Indian media over the comments Gilchrist made about Sachin Tendulkar, Harbhajan Singh and Sourav Ganguly. He says that after a defeat, it was difficult to find Tendulkar in the dressing room and writes that Harbhajan was always keen to get involved in sledging duels. Anyone who has followed Indian cricket knows how much Tendulkar hates to lose, and Harbhajan is no stranger to controversy.
The details on how the Australian team went for an army-like boot camp to wrest the Ashes from England in 2007 after they lost in 2005 — which he says was “the worst time in his cricketing life” — make for fascinating reading.
The book is a must-read for any cricket fan as it not only allows you to take a peek into a great cricketer’s life but also gives a picture on how arguably the greatest cricketing team of all time was built.
TRUE COLOURS
MY LIFE
Adam Gilchrist
Pan Macmillan
627pp; Rs 795