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NEWS Cricket World Cup 2007> Richards sees much of himself in Gilchrist 19th Jan 2007  14.01 IST By Agencies   Former West Indies captain and batting great Vivian Richards has said that Australia’s dashing wicket-keeper-batsman Adam Gilchrist played much like him and could prove decisive in an Australian World Cup victory. Richards said that Australia had the capability of winning the World Cup again because they are mentally strong. Speaking high of Gilchrist’s Test century in Perth where he missed by just one ball to break Richards’ record of fastest Test century, he said: “He woke me out of my sleep, man Someone said to me that he was going great guns. It was very special. Things like that I love to see. You could say that I had a bad year in terms of holding onto records. There was Mohammad Yousuf who overtook Richards for most runs in a calendar year and then Gilly came within one ball. I have always been an individual who wants to see the game move forward. Cricket is alive and well when that is happening.” Richards added: “I loved that innings from Gilly … Doing what he did, scoring one of the fastest hundreds, at a time when you’re at your lowest and not in the best of form, it goes to show you what he’s about. He’s a powerful player. It’s not the ability, it’s how mentally strong you are. He is a mentally strong guy to overcome what he did.” “To have accomplished what he did after that, he was not going to do it with a weak mind. Just the way he played, the way he went after the bowling was brilliant. He was a guy saying, ‘This is how I play, I am going to back my style.’ I loved it,” the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Richards as saying. About Aussies’ performance in the run-up to the World Cup, Richards said: “I believe they have the capability of doing it again. Apart from the ability factor, they are mentally strong. We had a great one-day team in my day. I would never compare eras … we were the guys then. Australia are the team now.” Of the 46 batsmen to have scored more than 5000 one-day international runs, only Gilchrist, Richards and Sri Lanka’s Sanath Teran Jayasuriya have achieved a strike rate in excess of 90. Gilchrist, at 96.39, is almost six runs per hundred balls clear of Richards and Jayasuriya, and is the only batsman of the trio to carry the added burden of wicket-keeping. Also View In-Depth Coverage: Cricket World Cup 2007 Team Page: West Indies Team Page: Australia

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