THE batting coach who convinced Adam Gilchrist to put a squash ball in his glove last night said the World Cup hero owes him a beer after he missed out on his own pay-day.
Bob Meuleman, the former West Australian cricketer and selector, has been the man behind Gilchrist's stunning batting heroics for the past decade.
Their partnership had further rewards yesterday when master-blaster Gilchrist spanked 149 off just 104 balls.
Meuleman, who played 14 Sheffield Shield matches between 1968-72, said he had convinced Gilchrist to insert the ball to help improve his very high grip on the bat.
"It is to stop his bat turning in his hand," Meuleman said from Perth last night. "I've worked with him for 10 years and he an unusual grip in which his hand goes too far around the back of the bat. It (the ball) is a great big lump in your glove but it means that you can only use your bottom hand in a V.
"It is hard to get around the back of the bat with it which means he improves his grip.
"Before he went off for the World Cup he didn't have the squash ball in and he hit like he couldn't even play fourth grade. He put it in and he then hit the ball so well."
Gilchrist had used it just once before the World Cup - when he crunched a one-day century against Queensland last summer.
So delighted was Gilchrist that it had helped him spearhead Australia to victory against Sri Lanka yesterday that, upon reaching his maiden World Cup ton, he turned to the television commentary booth at Kensington Oval and pointed to his glove for the watching Meuleman - whose superstition cost the coach a betting payday.
"The worst thing was, I was so confident that he was going to get a hundred that I had $500 on him when he was $5.50 to top-score in the match, but then I thought it might bring him bad luck so I pulled out at the last minute. He owes me a beer!"
It was surprising that it took until the final match of his third World Cup for the game's greatest batsman-wicketkeeper to notch his maiden Cup ton.
It was the 15th of his grand one-day career and, as skipper Ricky Ponting declared, well worth waiting for as it featured 13 boundaries and eight times he cleared the rope.
"As far as I am concerned, he hasn't played a better one," Ponting said.