Adam Gilchrist is not close to being the player he was – the sitter he dropped off VVS Laxman yesterday is evidence of that – but if any Australian sportsman has earned the right to go out on his terms it is the jug-eared gloveman from Perth.

There was talk before this fourth Test about Gilchrist’s future. He was 36, had played 94 Tests straight, and his batting average has slipped from 61 four years ago to a shade under 48; an unwise sweepshot against part-time offie Virender Sehwag in Perth, which resulted in him being bowled around his legs, started the muttering.

But it was the shelled chance off Laxman yesterday which has really got the hounds baying. And it is true the drop was a howler of the schoolboy variety. Having to move only slightly to his right, Gilchrist watched as the ball smacked into his glove and bobbled out again before he had time to close his hand. His reflexes looked slow.

But the critics should bide their time. Gilchrist’s glovework had been excellent prior to yesterday. He has kept up to the stumps regularly to Stuart Clark. If that looks easy, go out to the suburban oval nets one day, get a bowling machine to hurl the ball down at 135 kmh then ask a batsman to stand in front of you and wave his bat around – and see just how easy it is. The tactic means batsmen can’t stand out of their crease to the medium-pacers and it indirectly led to the dismissal of Sachin Tendulkar in Sydney.

All through the dark days of Australian cricket in the past decade – when the team’s reputation for sportsmanship took a back seat to its bloodlust for winning – Gilchrist was the one beacon that consistently shone.

Among the ferals leading the Australian team, he was a voice of reason. He was even criticised for his sportsmanship, specifically his habit of “walking” without waiting for the umpire’s decision. That came to a head when he strode off at a crucial moment during the 2003 World Cup semi-final against Sri Lanka. (He even walked once in a Test against Bangladesh when replays showed there had been no nick. Maybe, like Keith Miller during a county match on the 1948 tour of England, he just couldn’t see the sport in belting inferior opposition.)

Now the pressure is on the game’s greatest keeper-batsman like never before. He said last week he had given no thought to retirement and wanted to keep playing beyond the next Australian summer.

And so he should. For all the dignity he has brought to the Australian cricket team in his career – not to mention the unbridled joy he has brought to its supporters with his extraordinary batting feats – Gilchrist deserves the most dignified of exits. Cricket Australia owes him that, at least – and probably much more besides.