JASON GILLESPIE'S ASHES 2006-07

Everyone in Australia will be hoping for a fond farewell for some of the greatest players to represent Australia. There will not be any issues there. England has been outclassed in every discipline in the game this series and I cannot see how that will change this Test.

I thought I would share a short story on each of the lads who are retiring after this game, just for something different.

I will start with Glenn. Pidge and I have always had a great laugh in the dressing room over the years. We both try and out do each other with all sorts of jokes and pranks. One such joke that has gone on for years and will continue to carry on for a long time is very silly but according to Pidge is hilarious. He will always say to me "Hey Dizzy, there is an ugly rumour going around about you!" I will, as I have for the last seven or eight years, always say, "And what's that Pidge?" He would then say "No, that's the rumour, you're ugly!" And have the biggest, stupidest grin on his face. The thing is, it always got a laugh from someone so we, being pretty juvenile in our senses of humour, would always play up to it.

Warney loves his cricket kit. Whether it be bats, gloves or boots he always has the most, and always has the best. We bowlers always give him grief about it, especially the bats. He could have ten in the dressing room at any one time and each bat is the "best bat ever". We would always say to him, that he is a bowler and a bowler can have an absolute maximum of two bats in his kit bag. His argument would quite rightly be that he is an all-rounder. He also has about eight pairs of gloves at any one time in the kit-bag. Again, bowlers' rule of thumb is a maximum of two pairs of gloves. To this day, I still am bemused as to how he carts all his kit around the world.

I will never forget when JL was selected again for the last Test at the Oval in 2001 in place of Michael Slater. He was dropped after the first Test of the series and rather than mope around, he put all his energy into training and preparation. I also felt he tried to be the world's greatest 12th/13th man. He threw himself into drinks duties like there was no tomorrow. He was the ultimate team man.

When he was named to play, I remember him saying that he is just going to go out and really "love" his cricket and enjoy it. We all love the game and enjoy playing but what JL meant was that he was given another opportunity and that he was going to embrace the whole game and play it with a smile on his face. Even if he got hit or sledged, he was going to smile.

We all know what has transpired since then. He is one of the greats. It is going to be hard to replace someone who loves the Australian cricket team as much as JL.

Till next time

Dizzy