Tony Greig

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Tony Greig bigraphy, stories - South African born, English Test and County cricketer, commentator

Tony Greig : biography

6 October 1946 – 29 December 2012

Anthony William "Tony" Greig (6 October 194629 December 2012) was an England Test cricket captain turned commentator.

Born in South Africa, Greig qualified to play for the English national team by virtue of his Scottish parentage. He was a tall () batting all-rounder who bowled both medium pace and off spin. Greig was captain of England from 1975 to 1977, and also captained Sussex. His younger brother, Ian, also played Test cricket, while several other members of his extended family played at level.. Retrieved 29 December 2012.

A leading player in English county cricket, Greig is thought by some former players and pundits to have been one of England’s leading international all-rounders.Greg Chappell: "He wouldn’t have made it as a bowler or batsman, but his determination made him a top all-rounder", Tossell, p. 93.Derek Underwood "… you never hear of him mentioned as being a top-quality cricketer, but he was." Tossell, p. 98.John Snow "… he was as good an all-rounder as Freddie Flintoff, if not better." Tossell, p. 98. He helped Kerry Packer start World Series Cricket by signing up many of his English colleagues as well as West Indian and Pakistani cricketers, a move which cost him the England captaincy. He is also noted for a controversial run-out of Alvin Kallicharran in a Test Match against the West Indies in 1974, and often clashed with Australian fast bowler Dennis Lillee on the 1974–75 Ashes Tour in Australia. His infamous "grovel" statement in the lead-up to the 1976 tour of England by the West Indies was met with severe criticism.

Greig became a commentator following the end of his playing career, later emigrating to Australia. A long-term epileptic, he was diagnosed with lung cancer in October 2012. Greig died in Sydney, New South Wales, on 29 December 2012, aged 66, from cardiac arrest due to an apparent heart attack.

Early life and career

Greig was born to a Scottish immigrant father and a South African-born mother, and was educated at Queen’s College, Queenstown, South Africa. Many former Sussex players had been recruited to coach the cricket team at Queen’s College—during Greig’s schooldays, Jack Oakes, Alan Oakman, Ian Thomson, Ron Bell, Richard Langridge and Mike Buss all came from overseas for off-season work. All of them noticed Greig’s developing abilities which, after a first-class debut for Border Province in the Currie Cup, led to a trial at Sussex when Greig was 19. Greig’s father helped him decide between university study or pursuit of the Sussex offer. "He used to slam into me for not reading enough, for being generally immature. He would look at me sometimes and say ‘Boy, when I was your age I was fighting a war’, but in the end he grinned and said: ‘Go over to England for one year, one year mind, and see what you can do’".Wisden 1975

After Greig scored 156 in 230 minutes against a strong Lancashire attack in his first game for Sussex, his future direction changed irrevocably. He wrote a brief note to his father, telling him he would not be coming back to go to university. Greig set a goal of making the England Test team in six years, though he returned to play in South Africa during the winter for a number of years, eventually transferring to Eastern Province for the 1970–71 season.

Redemption in India

The best performance of Greig’s captaincy career came in 1976–77, when England toured India for a five-Test series. England had not won a Test series on the subcontinent for fifteen years and were clear underdogs against an Indian team that boasted some of the best spinners in the world and could count on the support of tens of thousands of vociferous fans who would fill the stadia. Greig made good use of his experience from his previous tour and consciously set out to build a rapport with the Indian crowd, for instance, playing ‘dead’ when loud firecrackers went off in the ground.Eagar, Patrick "Test Decade 1972–82" (World’s Work Ltd)1982 ASIN: B00110KLXY England went on to score one of their most convincing wins in a very long time when they won the first three Tests by huge margins. Greig rated the win at Calcutta, when he scored 103 on a broken pitch, and struggling with a stomach bug, in front of 100,000 Indian fans, as the finest moment of his career. With 342 runs (at 42) and ten wickets, Greig had regained form to take with him to Australia.