Being the wicketkeeper is the hardest job in the cricket team. Every other player is judged on what they did, such as the number of runs scored or the wickets taken. But the wicketkeeper is judged on what they didn’t do. If they fail to take a catch or miss a stumping, that will be the defining moment of their match. Everybody expects the wicketkeeper to take catches, and they don’t forget the ones he missed. The extras column in a scorecard silently records the miscues of the wicketkeeper through byes and leg-byes.
The wicketkeeper is also forced to wear heavy protection throughout the innings – pads, gloves and helmet. They sometimes have to field leg-byes running in the heavy accessories. When the weather is warm, this can be very tiring. Wicketkeepers seldom get substitutes, unless they are injured, because of the inconvenience in decking someone up for the role.
In street cricket, players frequently want to keep wickets because they think it is less work than fielding. But in fact, wicketkeeping is the most tiring task of all the fielders. Because of the nature of the game (fewer fielders with no long stop, amateurish keeping), the wicketkeeper has to keep chasing a lot more balls than they initially planned to.
The wicketkeeper cannot relax at any time. They have to keep watching every ball from its delivey by the bowler to when it becomes dead. For example, the batsmen may take a run, and the wicketkeeper has to be ready for the return to attempt a runout. In the case of a fielder, they may not have to do anything if the ball is hit to a position where they neither have to field or protect a fielding return.
There is no respite if it is a fast bowler or a spinner. In both cases, the wicketkeeper has to keep dancing behind the stumps as swing and spin take effect. Keeping behind a talented spinner is extremely tricky as there is a danger of conceding byes. The keeper also has to understand where the batsman is standing so that they can take advantage of a stumping opportunity.
Finally, when the wicketkeeper comes to bat, they usually come when already 4-6 wickets have fallen, and they have to play with the last recognized batsman or, worse, the tailenders. If the team is not doing well, the wicketkeeper is always under pressure to put up a reasonable score when the main batsmen have already failed. The batting superstar wicketkeepers like Gilchrist and Dhoni have been generally the exception, not the rule.
Finally, when was the last time that a wicketkeeper was the Man of the Match for his wicketkeeping alone?
