15 Facts about Tony Greig – The unforgettable voice of cricket

15 Facts about Tony Greig – The unforgettable voice of cricket: Every cricket fan of the current generation associate the late Tony Grieg with his catchy voice behind the mic. While his exploitations in the commentary box is probably just behind the legendary late Richie Benaud, he was also one of the best all-rounders of his generation too.

Celebrating his 69^th birth anniversary, here are 15 Facts about Tony Greig – The unforgettable voice of cricket

1. Birth:

Tony Greig was born on October 6^th, 1946 to a Scottish father and a South African-born mother in Queenstown province of South Africa.

2. Education:

He started his education in Queen’s college, Queenstown. That is is where he got the first exposure of cricket, as many former Sussex players were roped into coach the college cricket team.

3. First Class debut and progress:

Tony made his First-Class debut for Border province in South Africa. His developing capabilities, along with the presence of mentors in former Sussex players, put him on the Sussex radar. Eventually, he was roped in by Sussex for the 1966 season.

4. Test debut:

He made his Test debut against Australia in the first Ashes Test in 1972. He had a memorable debut, scoring fifties in both the innings and took 5 wickets in the match. His performance helped England go 1 up in the Ashes series.

5. Controversy in the Caribbean:

Tony Greig was involved in a controversial run-out of Alvin Kallicharran in a Test match at Trinidad. Alvin, who was beginning to walk back to the pavilion without the umpire’s call, was run-out by Grieg. The crowd reacted violently and the captains agreed to overturn the decision. Grieg admitted that the incident was not premeditated and was purely circumstantial. Other than that, he had a dream series; scoring 430 runs with an average of 47 and took 24 wickets.

6. On the way to captaincy:

He had a great summer of 1974, with some good performances against the visiting India and Australia. He averaged 41 for the summer and ended up taking 14 wickets. He followed it with a good performance in the return Ashes down under. His consistent performances ensured that he was appointed as the captain for the inaugural ODI world cup, where England crashed out in semi-finals.

7. Captaincy and controversy:

Before a series against West Indies, he stirred up yet another controversy by stating, “I intend  to make them grovel”, with the sentence hitting hard on the sentiment of West Indies people who had a history of slavery. The West Indies bowlers specifically targeted Tony, who managed just a single noteworthy performance of 116 in the entire series. England were hammered 3-0.

8. Triumph down in India:

Following a controversial series against West Indies, he was back to his best against India, wherein he led the team to huge victories in first three Tests in testing conditions. Using his previous experience, and adding up a bit of sense of humor in his side, he even won the crowd to his side occasionally. He rates his 103 in Calcutta his finest ever performance.

9. Centenary Test and joining rival league:

Tony played his last ever Test match as a captain at Melbourne on the occasion of 100 years post the first ever Test match. Despite performing well, England lost the match by 45 runs. A month later, he joined Kerry Packer’s cricket series the following year. The controversy led to Tony’s removal as captain.

10. Slump in form and last Test:

Despite being involved in Kerry Packer’s controversial league, Tony retained his place, albeit as a player, for the Ashes in England. His performance throughout the series was mediocre, with the exception of a 91 at Lord’s. Though England regained the Ashes, Tony’s performance was poor, and eventually played his last Test match at the Oval, the final Ashes Test which was a dead rubber. He played 58 Tests and scored 3599 runs, and took 141 wickets. He had a mediocre ODI career, scoring just 269 runs in 22 ODIs, and took 19 wickets.

11. Disappointing Super series performance:

Tony helped Packer hire a lot of professional cricketers for his rebel league. But his own performance in the series took a slump due to waning powers and lack of match practice. He played his last ever professional cricket match in the super series final, where he promised to score a century, and ended up scoring a duck.

12. First class career:

Tony Grieg has fine first class stats, scoring 16660 runs in 350 matches he played. Also, he took 858 wickets at a decent average of 28. His highest first-class score was 226 and had the best bowling figures of 8/25.

13. Commentary career:

Following his cricketing career that ended with the super series, he was given the job of a commentator for the series, and the rest is history. Till months before his eventual demise, he was regarded as one of the finest commentators, with some of his best bits coming in Ashes and matches involving Sachin Tendulkar. He even expressed the desire to commentate in Ashes while battling illness in late 2012.

14. Epilepsy and Cancer:

Tony played through his entire career with Epilepsy. While he rarely received any bouts of fits during matches, he did have one during a first-class match for the Eastern province. He publicly declared his epilepsy post his retirement, in 1978. He was diagonized with Lung cancer in 2012.

15. Death:

Tony Greig passed away on 29^th December 2012 following a heart attack, at Sydney. He was 66.