Cricket Career
Making his first-class debut for South Australia in the 1989/90 season, Berry moved back to his native Victoria to play with the Bushrangers in the 1990/91 season, and enjoyed a large degree of success. One of the high points of his career came in the 1997 Ashes tour, when he was selected to replace the injured Adam Gilchrist as the team's second-string wicketkeeper. Unfortunately, Berry did not represent Australia in a Test match on that tour.
In 2003/04, Berry ended his career on a high, captaining Victoria to a Pura Cup title against Queensland.
In terms of pure keeping ability, Berry was rated extremely highly, particularly his ability "keeping up" both to leg-spinner Shane Warne and to medium (and even fast-medium) paced bowlers. Warne, his Victorian teammate, said that "Darren Berry up to the stumps has probably been the best keeper that I've ever seen in my time ... I really wish he did get the opportunity to show how good a keeper he was, with a baggy green cap playing for Australia." Berry has often talked about his leg-side stumping off the bowling of paceman Paul Reiffel as one of his best achievements.
The reasons why Berry did not play for Australia included not only Australia's entrenched and effective keeper, Ian Healy, but his below par batting ability. Berry averaged only 21.58 in first-class cricket, with four centuries and 11 fifties in a long career, compared with Healy's 27 at Test level and 30 at first-class level, and well below the batting numbers of Healy's replacement, Adam Gilchrist. Berry has been a long-time critic of Gilchrist, often making light of what he considers poor keeping ability, and being able to get by on his batting prowess. He criticised Gilchrist's inclusion in Richie Benaud's Greatest XI, saying it was "an insult to Ian Healy, Rod Marsh, Don Tallon and the greatest of them all, the Englishman Alan Knott." He once said, "I would suggest Gilly misses a chance in most Test matches ... but it's all forgotten when he smashes a century with the bat".
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