Ian Healy - West Indies' Public Enemy No. 1 (12 March 1999)

12 March 1999

Ian Healy - West Indies' Public Enemy No. 1

Tym Glaser

Of all the men in baggy green caps on Australia's current tour of the West Indies, none seems to irritate West Indian players and fans more than Ian Healy.

Steve Waugh and Shane Warne are regarded as match-winning threats with bat and ball respectively but neither name stirs quite the same response as that of the 34-year-old Australian wicketkeeper.

Maybe it is because of his "debates" with great West Indian opener Desmond Haynes in the early '90s; or the controversial catch to dismiss Brian Lara in the second Test in Sydney in 1997; or maybe it's the appealing and constant encouragement to his bowlers that creeps right under Caribbean skin.

If you didn't know better, you would think 'Teefing' was the patois version of Ian.

However, like him or not, Ian Andrew Healy is one of the all-time great glovemen. Through the course of 11 years and 112 Tests, the Queenslander has claimed more scalps behind the stumps than any other 'keeper.

At Rawalpindi, Pakistan on October 4, 1998 he caught Wasim Akram off the bowling of Colin Miller to surpass fellow Australian Rodney Marsh's record of 355 dismissals.

Healy's mark now stands at 381 (comprising 353 catches and 28 stumpings) and the veteran harbours no desire to hang up the gloves just yet.

"I'm going to have a lot of fun just finding out how much longer I can go," Healy said after a training session at Sabina Park yesterday.

"As long as I am contributing to a good side and the side is winning and my form is holding up I'll keep going ... there are plenty of challenges coming up to keep me motivated.

"I can get to 400 dismissals and I'm not too far away from Alan Knott's run-scoring record, so they also keep me going."

Healy, with 4,285 Test runs, is only 104 behind the great England keeper's mark for the custodians of the stumps but the Australian rates team accomplishments well above individual milestones.

"The team ones tend to stick in your mind a lot longer because of the celebrations and the atmosphere. I suppose the world record in Pakistan was big," he said.

"However, the 1989 Ashes series when we beat England as the underdogs was very big. Then in 1994 in South Africa when we drew was pretty good and '95 when we beat the West Indies here; they would be three biggest cricketing achievements I've been involved in."

Healy admits he is as fiercely competitive and concedes this may have caused his relationship with the West Indian players to be less than convivial.

"I haven't got a close relationship with the West Indies players but I don't feel any animosity," Healy said.

"Sydney was a joke when there was clearly an over-reaction by Brian," he said of Lara's impromptu changeroom redecoration after his dismissal.

"I think Desmond had a chat with me rather than I with him. They (the West Indians) have got a problem with me, I haven't got a problem with them.

"If you can get under your opponent's skin, that is great but I don't try anything out there (on the field), I just play and that other stuff is just part and parcel of the game."

Source :: The Jamaica Gleaner (https://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/)