erhaps the defining image of Ashes cricket in the 1990s was a photo taken by the sport?s renowned photographer Patrick Eagar at the Old Trafford Test of 1993.

England?s Mike Gatting had just been bowled by Shane Warne?s first delivery in Ashes cricket, a ball which drifted into him and pitched outside leg stump before fizzing back across him to clip the top of off stump.

?The ball of the century? ? as it has subsequently been dubbed ? signalled Warne?s arrival as a major force on the international scene and sent shockwaves through an England team who took over a decade to recover from the psychological impact.

Understandably, Gatting?s face is a picture of bemusement as he stared down at the place the ball pitched while behind him, Australia?s legendary wicketkeeper Ian Healy is captured in mid-air, arms aloft and smiling from ear to ear, revelling in a moment that will be forever etched in Ashes folklore.

In a celebrated Test-career spanning 11 years, ?Heals? was the heartbeat of an Australian team who rose from whipping boys to the undisputed champions of world cricket.

Though exceptional standing back to the quicks, it was his partnership with Warne for which he is most famous ? his nasal bellow of ?bowling Warney? after virtually every delivery becoming a catch-phrase impersonated by cricket-lovers the world-over.

Reflecting on that special relationship this week, Healy ? who is on the Island as captain of the Australian Masters who lost to South Africa on Monday ? admitted that his work with the great legspinner from Victoria was the highlight of his time at the top level.

?Watching Shane develop from a talented but incredibly nervous kid into the champion he is today was an absolute pleasure,? he said.

?I didn?t really work with Shane any more than I did with any other bowler, but I made sure that I was reading what he was delivering as best I could and we as a team beforehand obviously had our plans as to how we were going to bowl at certain batsmen.

?Shane and I tried to help each other as best we could. From my position I could often get a decent look at his action and we?d have a little chat if there was anything I thought was a little off.

?Other than that I just tried to catch everything I could for him and make the stumpings when they came my way. When you?ve got a bowler as good and as accurate as Shane it actually made my job a lot easier. He was incredible really, the way he could control a game even on day one of a Test match when the wicket was offering him nothing and then cause even more problems as the wicket got older.

?It was fantastic being down the other end for all those years watching him.?

ealy was born in Brisbane almost 42 years ago but grew up in the Bush, playing most of his early cricket for countryside teams before returning to the city when he was 17 to play grade cricket.

While there are scores of Test players both present and past who were exponents of other cricketing disciplines in their youth (for instance, former England captains Mike Atherton and Nasser Hussain were highly-rated leg spinners at schoolboy level before maturing into good international batsmen) from the age of nine Healy slipped entirely naturally into the role of wicketkeeper-batsman.

?There was never really any doubt in my own mind over what sort of cricketer I was going to be,? he said.

?Wicketkeeping was something I enjoyed doing and also something that seemed to come relatively easily to me. Right through the various age group teams I played in I usually batted in the top three as well ? even up to under-19 level.

?When I started playing grade cricket there was a man called Bryan Phelam who was the first grade ?keeper at the side I played for who was the main influence on my game from a young age and he was always the person I went back to if my technique was suffering a little bit and some adjustments needed to be made.

?I cut my teeth in grade cricket for quite a few years and was eventually picked to play for Queensland in 1985 when I was 22.?

Remarkably, Healy played only six first class games for the state before he was an out-of-the-blue selection for the Australian senior side which was touring Pakistan in September, 1988.

To make an international debut with so little experience behind him was challenging in itself.

But to do it against Pakistan, on the slow and low pitches of the subcontinent and in the searing heat of Karachi was an experience that might have unnerved an individual without Healy?s ferociously competitive and professional mindset.

As it was, Australia suffered a crushing defeat in his debut Test match, losing by an innings and 188 runs after they had lost the toss and were kept out in the field for almost three days ? with their hosts painstakingly compiling a total of 469 for nine declared.

?It was a surprise to get picked for Australia having only played a few games for Queensland, spread out over a couple of years,? Healy admitted.

?It helped having Allan Border as captain of the state side and he obviously liked what he saw because before I had really had time to get my head round it I was on the plane to Pakistan.

?It was incredibly hard that first Test. Lots of people had told me that ?keeping on the subcontinent would be tough because of the slowness of the pitches and the uneven bounce. When I got there though, the uneven bounce was not as big a factor as I thought and what was really draining both physically and mentally was standing up to the stumps for long periods of time to the spinners.

?Pakistan kept us out on the park for two days and two sessions as well which was not an ideal way to start my international career ? but I guess it never really got any more demanding that that.

?I wasn?t really a Test-class wicketkeeper at that stage. It took me two years to develop a technique that worked and it involved a complete assessment of what was going right and what was going wrong. I worked hard developing my footwork and the positioning of my hands when I was taking the ball ? but it was not really until I was around 26 that I was ?keeping in the way I needed to be.?

From 1988 to 1999, the Queenslander was an almost constant presence in the national side, ?keeping immaculately, scoring crucial lower order runs at number seven and later on becoming a hugely resourceful and committed vice-captain under Mark Taylor and Steve Waugh.

It was not through pure talent that Healy has come to be regarded as the most complete wicketkeeper Australia have ever produced, or that he was heavily involved in a side which went on to become world champions in the long and short form of the game.

His work ethic and commitment to his trade in terms of preparation was arguably unequalled at the time and matched that of the team as a whole ? an uncompromising, win-at-all-costs brand of professionalism both on and off the pitch which began under Border and coach Bobby Simpson.

?It was obvious we had the ability, it was just a question of making sure we trained harder and were more professional than any other team,? Healy said, referring to their quest to knock a once great West Indies side off their pedestal, something they eventually did during their tour of the Caribbean in 1994-95.

?Border and Bobby Simpson were big on relentless repetition in training and we spent probably longer than anybody else working on our skills and getting ourselves in the best possible shape to play Test cricket.

?And eventually it bore fruit and there is no doubt since that time Australia?s dominance has been based upon that foundation.?

iven his staggering contribution to the national cause (366 Test match catches, 29 stumpings and almost 4,500 runs) the end, when it came, did not pan out as Healy would have liked.

If he?d had a choice, no doubt he would have liked to have departed the game on his terms, in front of an adoring, capacity crowd in a Test match at The Gabba.

As it was, his last Test came against lowly Zimbabwe in a one-off, completely inconsequential game in Harare, watched by no more than 5,000 spectators.

At that stage, Adam Gilchrist had been the wicketkeeper in the one-day side for some time and had been savaging the white ball on a regular basis at the top of the order.

Healy?s contributions, however, were beginning to dwindle, even if his wicketkeeping was still exemplary.

After a poor tour of the West Indies and a negligible contribution against Zimbabwe, the writing appeared to be on the wall and when he returned home, the selectors informed him that Gilchrist would be the one selected for the first domestic Test against Pakistan.

?They did not really give me a choice on the matter,? Healy said.

?To be fair I was not making the runs I had done in the past and the selectors were obviously looking to get Gilly into the Test side as soon as they could, given that he had been biding his time in the one-day team, waiting for me to finish.

?To a certain extent I wish they had told me earlier what their plans were because I did not really know what was going on and I would have liked to have bowed out on home soil.

?But that is the way it worked But this is the way it worked out and when they told me I wasn?t going to get picked, I had a choice of going back to play for Queensland or calling it quits. And given that I was 36 by then, that wasn?t really much of a choice to make.?

Since taking over the role, Gilchrist has come to be regarded as the best wicketkeeper/batsman ever, with a batting average which was once over 50 but is now just shy ? thanks in no small part to his difficulties against Flintoff et al during the Ashes last summer.

Despite having his achievements somewhat overshadowed by the powerful left-hander from New South Wales, Healy denied any feelings of envy ? instead lavishing Gilchrist with praise for the ?extra dimension? he has given Australia.

?What people should remember about Gilchrist is that for two or three years he was the best batsman in the team as well,? he said.

?So many times he would come in and rescue Australia when they were in trouble and take the game away from the opposition by scoring so quickly. The man?s a phenomenal talent and has given the side that little bit extra which they needed to maintain their dominance.?

No sooner had he stuffed the cricket gear into the attic just before the Millenium, however, Healy was back working within the game full-time, commentating on all of Australia?s domestic games for Channel Nine while being asked to nurture the country?s elite wicketkeepers at the National Cricket Academy in Brisbane.

Having never been involved in a losing Ashes campaign, watching Ricky Ponting?s side being out-thought and out-played by England last time round would have been a painful experience for this fiercely patriotic Australian, although he bristled at the suggestion that Australian cricket had now peaked, with the Poms, India and Pakistan queuing up to take their place at the pinnacle.

?All that stuff being written about their being a lack of depth in Australian cricket is just rubbish,? he argued.

?A lot of people are talking about this being a period of transition for the team, which is true to a certain extent with the likes of McGrath coming towards the end, but I don?t agree. There are plenty of young players coming through who have talent but lack experience.

?Yes, we lost the Ashes, but I still think the team went into that series underdone. There were not enough warm-up games to get the side properly prepared and to be honest the worst thing that could have happened as it turned out was to win the first Test (at Lord?s) so convincingly because I think there was a collective assumption after that England would just roll over as they had done before.

?When England came back strongly at them, I don?t think they were ready for it ? and then when you factor in the early injury of McGrath you can start to see where it all went wrong.

?But England have not been anywhere near the side they were since that time and they have a lot of hard work to do to get everybody fit and playing to their capabilities before they go to Australia to defend the Ashes. It will probably be a close series, but there are still a lot of very talented young cricketers in Australia and they?ll be a very good side for a long time yet.?