Former Aussie wicket-keeper batsman Adam Gilchrist who tormented bowling attacks during his heydey recalled an incident where they used to make fun of former Proteas batsman Neil McKenzie who was a follower of innumerable superstitions.
His highly superstitious beliefs were enough to amuse the Australian cricketers on the field and as we all know the Aussies never shy away from taking a dig at their opponents verbally.
In the Unplayable Podcast, Gilchrist conceded that McKenzie was one of the easiest batsmen to rattle as he was too much particular about his superstitions when he came out to bat. We all knew that he had a whole lot of superstitions and routines that he had to go through,” he said. Gilly also revealed how they pulled McKenzie’s leg when he was batting.
“I was told quite early that he hated stepping on the crease lines or any lines, where you mark the centre, 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”, Gilly was quoted as saying while recalling the pranks they played on McKenzie.
The opening batsman had a big set of superstitions which he used to follow before coming out to bat. He used to look at the square leg fielder, then the fine leg before facing the bowler prior to his delivery stride. He also made sure that each that every toilet seat in the dressing room had it’s lid down before he receded on to the middle.
Once McKenzie’s bat was taped to the ceiling ahead of a match and after getting a century in that match, he intentionally tapped his bat into the ceiling ahead of match days. He was highly affected by anything which used to be out of place when he came out to bat. He was even mocked by own teammates due to his superstitions.
Later on, it was learnt that McKenzie was showing symptoms of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and had to seek medical assistance to overcome this habits.