Simon Hughes: Healy enhances his standing (8 July 1997)

Tuesday 8 July 1997

Healy enhances his standing as a smooth operator out of the rough

By Simon Hughes

THERE`S an old adage that a wicketkeeper is good if you don`t notice him. It`s a myth. At Old Trafford you noticed Ian Healy because he was so good.

Quite apart from his phenomenal consistency and vibrant relationship with the close fielders, Healy conjured dismissals in both England innings that greased the slope down which they eventually slid.

The brilliant stumping of Mark Butcher from a legside full toss began England`s first capitulation and, on Sunday, he held a wide bottom edge from Graham Thorpe a ball after being practically decapitated as a Warne delivery jumped and spat out of the rough.

Yesterday he scooped up an awkward one-handed catch to end Mark Ealham`s brave resistance and finally tip England over the precipice. And he even caught a bail sent pirouetting when Mc- Grath bowled Gough.

Warne thought Healy`s pouching of a vicious leg break which spun virtually at right angles across John Crawley was the best take he had ever seen. Steve Waugh, not a man to scat- ter praise about, described him as "the best wicketkeeper in the world".

Healy blushed at such rich valuations and suggested his keeping on the fourth day was flawed. "I was too uptight about the ball misbehaving out of the rough and fretted about missing a chance," he said swigging a celebratory Coke after Australia had won. "Yesterday I was more relaxed and took the ball better. Maybe the helmet helped my confidence, but I must get a gumshield too."

"But you can`t sledge with a gumshield," Terry Jenner, who was standing by, observed drily. Healy laughed revealing a hitherto perfect set of white teeth.

Ian Botham is to blame for Healy`s emergence from ob- scurity. In the 1987-88 Sheffield Shield, Botham was bowling for Queensland when their wicketkeeper, Peter Anderson, decided to stand up. Botham slung a ball down the legside, Anderson groped for it and broke his finger. Healy, then a batsman who kept rather than a specialist stumper, was called up and has been in the side ever since.

There was a dearth of outstanding keepers in Australia at the time, and Healy was fast-tracked into the Test team. He made an inauspicious debut in Karachi as Javed Miandad made 200 and Pakistan won by an innings, but it was a valuable induction. He realised that keeping, like bowling and batting, was a grooved art and that only the most rigorous preparation would turn him into the genuine article. Out of 91 Tests since, he has missed only one.

His performance at Old Trafford four years ago sticks in his mind as one that was practically blemishless ("I didn`t drop a ball which was quite something on that pitch"), but still he seeks perfection.

Quite apart from all the usual drills before matches, he sharpens movement and reflexes by bouncing compound balls around his room or catching golf balls as they ricochet off brick walls. "It`s quite hard to find anywhere to do that round here," he said at Old Trafford, "so sometimes I go into the hotel`s underground car park."

He makes meticulous notes in a book after each day`s play and checks the big screen constantly for replays of his handiwork. "It`s the best coach you could possibly have," he added.

He may be the eyes and hands of the team but he is also their heartbeat. His perpetual energy, whether nipping over to the bowler for a quiet word, running between overs or mun- danely feeding the ball back to him via the slip cordon, invigorates the others in the same way as the animated conductor rousing his orchestra to another crescendo.

Expect more of the same in the fourth movement.

Factfile

IAN ANDREW HEALY

Born: April 30, 1964, in Brisbane, but grew up in north Queensland town of Biloela.

Sports: Played cricket, basketball, football, squash and rugby league at school and became a school cricket captain aged 11.

Interests: Sports science and psychology since he underwent a PE diploma course.

Family: Accompanied on tour by wife Helen and their two children.

Queensland debut: 1986-87.

Test debut: Sept 1988 v Pakistan.

One-day debut: Oct 1988 v Pakistan.

Test record: 91 matches, 138 innings (average 28.10), three centuries, 15 half-centuries. His 298 catches and 21 stumpings put him second behind Rodney Marsh, who totals 355 victims.

One-day record: 168 matches, 120 innings (average 21). Caught 192 and 39 stumpings.

Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/)