The whispered goodbye

Jason Gillespie is the faithful servant who never received a proper farewell. Dropped during the 2005 Ashes series, he quickly became a forgotten man until he was picked up following the Test team's injury crisis on the way to Bangladesh. A Man-of-the-Series performance followed when he showed his favoured characteristics of seam and sharp bounce had not waned terminally.

While his bowling was briefly back - his eight wickets meant he would rest forever on 259, the sixth-largest haul in his country's Test history - his batting suddenly exploded in a romantic innings that added to his passionate following and earned him an unwanted tag. Seven months later when the 2006-07 Ashes began he was not included despite having scored a double-century in the previous contest.

Before the game in Chittagong his highest score was 54, but he almost quadrupled it with the most unlikely performance. A night-watchman who would rather depart a tour injured than offer up his wicket, he stayed for 574 minutes and 425 balls, leaving with an unbeaten 201. He would never add another Test run or wicket.

Gillespie knew during the following winter his time was up - barring more injury to team-mates - but he wouldn't give up. He was desperate to regain the Ashes and his desire to be part of it prevented him from stepping down, along with a belief he was still of international quality. So when he was shuffled back to fourth, fifth or lower in the country's fast-bowling pecking order it was too late for a major public goodbye. Gillespie went without a roared farewell from a full stadium or an end-of-game thank you from tearful team-mates. There were no "Let's do it for Dizzy" cries as he walked from Australia's dressing room.

Instead his last two seasons were spent on empty grounds in the Pura Cup as the national side's success, which he helped create, rolled on. Gillespie announced his retirement from Australian cricket without fanfare on Friday. His gold watch came when he won a Cricket Australia contract for 2007-08 - a bonus for uncomplaining service which often ruined his body but never his mind.

Apart from the consistent discomfort he provided for batsmen and the Hell's Angels hair, it is hard to think of Gillespie without squirming at all the pain. A broken leg came in his 1999 collision with Steve Waugh in Kandy and they both ended up in hospital. While Waugh was back for the next game, Gillespie went home for rehabilitation and did not return to the Test team for 15 months. A body part was often in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Injury helped rule him out of 33 Tests in his five seasons and his medical files ranged across back, leg, groin and shoulder complaints, but his comebacks were as predictable as the batsman's plays and misses against him. Anyone who saw how hard the physio's elbows were pushed into his back in the West Indies so he could return for the final session in Barbados in 1999 never doubted Gillespie's hardness.

The team needed him so he walked out and kept bowling, delivering the ball that meant Australia lost by a wicket. He missed the next Test and was not considered fit enough for Australia's successful World Cup campaign that year. The last three years of his career were not affected by the same problems and a body as weak as a child's toy soon resembled that of an iron man.

Two world-conquering bowlers could never have wished for a greater accomplice. Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne owe much to Gillespie for limiting the runs and building the pressure. They were also responsible for stealing many potential wickets. An unanswerable question remains: would Gillespie have been a true great in another team?

It didn't matter whether the wicket had lots of life or none: Gillespie induced more air swings than McGrath, but the statistics only measure the successes, not the near-misses. McGrath's record as a marksman was 4.5 victims per match while Gillespie managed 3.6. There were only eight five-wicket hauls and never ten in a match, but when he was fit there was no doubt about his place - until 2005.

A grounded athlete, he started his career by keeping quiet until he felt he had achieved something. When things turned bad he avoided hiding. "You see a lot of sportspeople who accept the praise when they're doing well and tell people to nick off when they're not," he said after being dropped in 2005. "Yes, I was struggling, but I wanted to show that even though I wasn't playing at my best I was still a member of the Australian cricket team and I was doing my best."

At the time he spoke of wanting another over in a Test, then he would readjust his goal to 300 wickets. He added eight more and a priceless double-century. The only disappointment of that visit to Bangladesh was that he reneged on his plan for another outlandish celebration for his maiden Test century. A ride of his bat came with his first fifty - when he and Glenn McGrath tormented New Zealand for 114 runs in 2004-05 - and he promised much more if he ever got to three figures. Fortunately it was one of the few times he failed to deliver.

This time he got to choose his method of departure, but it will be impossible for the masses to say goodbye. The change in his circumstances over the past two years mean there won't be many around to share the last moments. He was always a player who deserved better.