Full name
Guillermo Patricio Kirschbaum
Born
March 28, 1968, Buenos Aires
Died April 13, 2003 (aged 35 years 16 days)
Major teams Argentina, Belgrano Athletic Club
Batting style Right-hand bat
Bowling style Right-arm fast-medium
"Guille", as he was known to friends, compatriots and team-mates alike, was
an immensely popular figure, not just on the cricket fields of Argentina,
but in every sphere of life, as well as to many cricketers around the world
who competed against him over the years.
An inspirational leader, he was captain of his club, Belgrano, as well as
various representative teams, including both North and South XI's, and his
country, Argentina, for many years. He first made his mark as a cricket
captain when he led a young Argentina Colts XI to a memorable victory over
Paul Parker's MCC tourists of 1990. In all, Kirschbaum represented Argentina
in over 80 matches, official and unofficial, and was captain on more than 50
occasions. He captained Argentina in their last official international
tournament, the Americas Cricket Championships, in Buenos Aires in 2002.
He represented Argentina at cricket for over a decade, and was an immensely
proud and patriotic cricketer for his country. He represented Argentina at
four successive ICC Trophy tournaments, in Holland (1990), Kenya (1994),
Malaysia (1997) and Canada (2001). He was team captain for the 1997 and 2001
events, also having captained one game in Holland in 1990. He is Argentina's
highest run-scorer in the ICC Trophy, with 511 runs at an average of 21.29.
His 26 appearances at the ICC Trophy is also the most for any Argentine
player. He was captain on 13 of these 26 occasions, leading Argentina to
victory 5 times. In fact, Kirschbaum played in each of Argentina's 8
recorded victories in ICC Trophy history.
An extraordinarily gifted and aggressive batsman, he often played
match-winning innings in flamboyant and confident style, and was also an
above-average fielder renowned for his agility and reflexes, taking 11
catches in 26 ICC Trophy matches. It is fitting, in what turned out to be
his last appearance for Argentina abroad, and at an ICC Trophy, that he led
Argentina to probably the country's greatest cricket victory, over Malaysia
in Toronto, Canada, in 2001, where his brilliant innings of 34 not out, off
only 18 balls, led Argentina to a remarkable victory. A mark of his skill
was that this innings contained only 2 fours and 1 six, and he accumulated
20 runs in 15 balls without boundaries. In this tournament, where
Argentina's four wins out of five ranks as easily the best performance by an
Argentine team in international competition ever, a major contribution to
this success was Kirschbaum's astute captaincy, and coming in at number
five, 144 runs at an average of 36.
Kirschbaum died of complications caused from a severe asthma attack when
just 35. (Argentina CA, 2003)