Adam Gilchrist recalls his pranks on Neil McKenzie

What's the story?

Adam Gilchrist recalled making fun of former South African batsman Neil McKenzie with his teammates.

McKenzie's highly superstitious beliefs with respect to the game were enough to amuse the entire Australian team on the field.

In The Unplayable Podcast, Gilchrist revealed that McKenzie was one of the easiest players to rattle. "We all knew that he had a whole lot of superstitions and routines that he had to go through," he said.

He also disclosed the manner in which he and the team pulled the opener's leg.

Gilchrist explained, "I was told quite early that he hated stepping on the crease lines or any lines, where you mark the center, he just had this phobia of lines. So I just often spent a lot of time scratching lines in the crease line and in and around where he had to stand."

"That was always a bit of fun just to try and see how that affected him, but he was a good player", he added while recollecting the pranks that he played on the Protean batsman.

In case you didn't know...

McKenzie had a long list of superstitions which he followed during his career. The right handed batsman used to look at the square-leg followed by fine-leg before looking at the bowler prior to every delivery.

He also needed to make sure that every toilet seat in the dressing room had its lid down before he walked out to bat.

Once, his bat was taped to the ceiling by his fans ahead of a match. After he got his bat back, he went on to score a century in the same match.

Post this incident, he intentionally taped his bat to the ceiling before his other matches.

The details

McKenzie was highly affected by anything being out of place before the start of every match. His superstitions was earlier subjected to mockery by his own teammates as well as his rivals.

However, his obsession with the orderliness of everything around him was later understood as symptoms of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).

He had to seek help in order to overcome these habits, which were also affecting his daily life outside the sport.

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Author's take

McKenzie's superstitious beliefs and his obsession with orderliness in everything may come as a surprise to some. However, the riling by the Australian Cricket team may not be news to fans.

In this case, it was intentionally done either to bring McKenzie out of his comfort zone - or just for the sake of entertainment.