RIP Tony Greig

Former England captain Tony Greig died of a heart attack this afternoon in Sydney. He had been ill with lung cancer for a couple of months , but this came rather out of the blue. He had been "tweeting" quite happily at Christmas.

Whatever one may think of some of his public remarks , both when playing and as a commentator for Channel 9 , he was a whole hearted competitor on the cricket field , totally lacking in fear, who was always a delight to watch and whose record against tough opposition stands up very well. He didn't win a lot of his 14 matches as England captain , but he always led from the front , and earned his Wisden Player of the Year spot in 1975.

A sad loss at just 66 years. My sympathies to his family.

My condolences to his family, I remember during the second test between SA and Australia there was an interview with Tony Greig from his home in Australia, just prior to him starting his treatment, he was upbeat and ready to fight the cancer.

That is how I will remember him, positive and an icon of cricket.

Very sad news.

Watching a report on him now. A big loss to world cricket.

A sad news indeed. His playing days were much before I took to the game, but he was brilliant in the commentary box. Sachin Tendulkar's desert storm in 1998 cannot be separated from Greig's enthusiasm in the commentary box.
RIP Tony

Ian Chappell live on Ch 9 News right now.
A few anecdotes being told... red eyes and a tear down his cheek.

Also Thommo, Bill Lawry, James Packer, Ian Healy, Mark Taylor, Richie Benaud and many others have said a few words.

There's going to be a Special Tribute Show for Tony Greig at 6:30pm... in about 10 minutes here.

The Show is on now.

Interestingly, they have described Tony as "combative".... rather than competitive.

The famous "lost key" at the WACA story is being told now.

Very well presented by Mark Nicholas. Richie is very quiet. He must feel very shocked.

Max 'Tangles' Walker is on now from the Melbourne studio saying "He loved a bit of conflict... always very confident and optimistic..."

One funny anecdote.

December 1974 in Brisbane.

Tony Greig signalling a 4 every time he smashed Lillee to the boundary.

Ian Chappell then pulls Lillee aside and says: "any chance we can try and get this guy out rather than trying to knock his block off?"
Greig had just passed 100 runs in the 1st innings... hooking and pulling Lillee & Thommo to all parts.

(this was where the term 'sandshoe-crusher' was born. Lillee got him out more by surprise with a yorker after TG had expected another one at about eye level)

Caught the latter part of the show...thanks for the heads up , lb

Richie indeed looked a bit shocked. Bill Lawry and others also clearly affected. I know they all worked together for a long time , but the bonds of affection between them are very clear. A sad day.

Bloody hell.

RIP Tony

Is there a link to this tribute show for us in the UK?

A terribly sad end to the life of somebody who has given so much to the game both on and off the field.

A terrible shame that he didn't achieve his ambition of commentating on one last Test at New Year.

RIP Tony

Tragic news. The big guy winding up the other channel 9 commentators & taking the p1ss out of Lawry was always worth waking up early for. As much a comedian as a pundit - I often cracked up during the pitch report. My favourite TV commentator along with Bumble & Boycott, had such an engaging manner of sharing his knowledge.

RIP mate.

Whilst Tony Greig will be best known to younger posters for his commentary work, he was considerably under rated as a Test cricketer and massively influential in the way that cricketers are now treated and rewarded.

58 Test matches in a Test career which ended in 1977 at the age of just thirty as he joined Kerry Packer's World Series.
An attacking number six batsman and a right arm medium pace bowler who sometimes turned to off spin when favoured by the conditions.
Over three and a half thousand Test runs. An average a shade above 40. Eight centuries against the leading bowlers of his era - Lillee and Thomson, Roberts and Holding, Bedi and Chandrasekhar.
One hundred and forty-one Test wickets. An average of just over 32. Two tenfers - one against New Zealand and the other against the West Indies in Port of Spain in 1974. The latter comprised a match haul of 13 from his off breaks as England narrowly won the final Test to level a five match series one all. Greig's wickets included those (at least once) of Sobers, Lloyd, Kanhai, Kallicharran, Rowe and Murray.

Greig's status as a leading England all rounder suffered - unfortunately for him - as he was quickly eclipsed by the astonishing feats of Ian Botham which continued through the next decade. Following Botham's retirement, England selectors seemed hell bent on a path of self destruction as they sought in vain to find a ''Botham Mark Two'' and picked an inordinate number of unsuitable (for Test cricket) county all rounders. Not until the emergence of Andrew Flintoff was the problem temporarily solved to at least some extent. So often it was commented that, ''you cannot replace Botham''. Whilst this was undoubtedly true, it overlooked that an adequate replacement for Greig would have been more than acceptable and was equally impossible to locate.

Greig attracted widespread hostility in the English press for not only signing up to World Series Cricket but acting as Kerry Packer's first lieutenant in recruiting others. This cost him the England captaincy and his Test career. This is not the place (and nor do I have the time or knowledge) for a proper assessment of Packer. However, Packer and his brand of cricket ultimately revolutionised the game and significantly improved the lot of future cricketers (as Jonathan Agnew and Angus Fraser have reaffirmed today in tributes to Greig).

Greig consistently throughout the following decades spoke in favour of World Series and his role within it. He was always a loyal man and wore his heart on his sleeve. That particularly came across in his captaincy and his unfortunate ''grovel'' comments to the West Indies which backfired so badly. That comment aside, it was probably a lack of subtety that let Greig down more than anything as England captain. In contrast, that was one of the greatest strengths of his successor, Mike Brearley.

I suspect that cricket history will judge Tony Greig kinder than he often was during his lifetime. Certainly modern cricketers have a lot to thank him for whilst we have a lot to remember.

Excellent tribute guildford.

R.I.P

Quite shocked to hear the news this morning. Rest in peace Tony Greig.

Guildford - a fine tribute indeed. Greig certainly shook up the cricket world with his sometimes abrasive approach and, at the time many people (including me) were hostile to his work for Kerry Packer. You rightly highlight that he was a genuine test all rounder. And remarkably, he had two completely different bowling styles. Almost as if Jimmy Anderson turned up for one match and took 10 wickets with his leg spin.... Sobers is one other who had that kind of gift with his bowling but there must be very few others.

A big loss to cricket....RIP

Sad news, this. Most of the most fitting tributes have already been spoken, but anyway, an excellet player, something of a trendsetter and, in my opinion, a top class commentator, too.

It won't be the same listening to cricket commentary without hearing Greig's trademark "Oh bwoy!" every now and then, that's for sure!

R.I.P

Great tribute Guildford.

It's always a horrible feeling when you hear something like this but with Tony Greig it's a more personal feeling due to the amount of time I've spent listening to him on commentary. As a young'un on the boards the 2005 Ashes commentary with Greig,Benaud,Boycott,etc stands out in the memory.

As many here have already said a hugely underrated test player. He added a bit of fight to every side he ever played for.

RIP Tony. The cricketing world is worse without you.

People may be interested in this account by Pat Pocock (Surrey and England off spinner) of Greig's match winning performance at Port of Spain.

"When I returned home after a long and tiring Test series in the West Indies in 1974, every one of my team-mates back home at Surrey had the same question: "Did Greig really bowl that well?" The reason for their surprise was that Tony Greig had been getting hit all over the park with his offspinners back in England. But in that drama-filled, spectator-occupied, loud calypso music-blaring fifth Test in Port-of-Spain, he produced one of the greatest ever all-round displays by an English cricketer.

Greig's story started on the first day of the first Test, at the same venue, when he provoked the ire of the crowd by running out Alvin Kallicharran on the last ball of the day. Kallicharran was run out as he was walking back to the dressing room, believing play to be over, and he was understandably upset. He smashed his bat into two on the steps on his way back to the pavilion, which caused the crowd to erupt. To prevent the matter from getting out of hand, Kallicharran was recalled the next morning. Obviously Greig didn't like it, but he was not one to be undone by such incidents.

That West Indies batting line-up was probably the best I ever played against: Roy Fredericks, Lawrence Rowe, Kallicharran, Clive Lloyd, Garry Sobers, Rohan Kanhai. We only played two seamers in that game: Geoff Arnold and Greig. Arnold worked hard, bowled tidily, pitched the ball in good areas, but was just unlucky. That was when Greig decided to try and be innovative.

During the second Test, in Jamaica, Greig had had problems bowling seamers to the likes of Clive Lloyd, who had scored freely on a flat Sabina Park pitch, where the straight boundaries were only 55 yards. But it was still a bit of a surprise when Greig told our captain, Mike Denness, that he was going to bowl offspinners from round the wicket with three men on the boundary, a lone slip, and the rest inside the circle. That was the first time I had seen him bowl his slow tweakers in international cricket - but they did cut down on the run-rate.

England were one Test down in the series when they returned to Trinidad for the fifth match. The tour itinerary had a clause that stated that the final match would be played for six days if its outcome could affect the series. Port-of-Spain was generally a low and flat wicket with some turn. In the final game it turned more than usual, but only at one end, curiously, while at the other it was completely flat.

Denness elected to bat, but barring Geoffrey Boycott, who unfortunately got out just one short of a century, none of our batsmen spent enough time at the crease. In contrast, West Indies' opening partnership of Fredericks and Rowe continued their handsome assault on the English bowling. Halfway into the third day they were cruising at about 220 for 2 in reply to England's 267. That was when Greig's big fingers spun everything around.

He replaced me at the end that was helping the spinners. He varied his length, bowled accurately, got a lot of spin and bounce off the pitch with his big six-foot-seven-inch frame. Another smart thing he did was bowl round the wicket to the left-handers - that helped him maintain a tight line to them without giving any width.

In the space of 20 balls, he sent back Lloyd, Sobers, Kanhai and Deryck Murray for just six runs. He ended up almost singlehandedly demolishing West Indies, with brilliant figures of 8 for 86.

He carried on with the same line of attack in the second innings, when West Indies were set a target of 226, after Boycott finally got a well-deserved century. From 62 for no loss, West Indies slumped to 85 for 5, and it was left to Sobers, Bernard Julien and Murray to fight back.

At 166 for 8 we thought the game was ours. But Inshan Ali helped Keith Boyce cut down the target, and it got tighter and tighter. Then Greig got Ali, and Arnold yorked the last man, Lance Gibbs, to claim his only wicket of the match. We won by 26 runs."

Corporal - that's an interesting account from Pocock, thanks.

That ties in with another reason why Greig's Test record is often under rated in this country, even by old lags like us . Too often his best Test performances were overseas. Wth no tv coverage of them here, they attracted less publicity than they deserved and far less than would be the case today. His batting and bowling averages in both the West Indies and India are especially impressive.

guildfordbat wrote:That ties in with another reason why Greig's Test record is often under rated in this country, even by old lags like us . Too often his best Test performances were overseas. Wth no tv coverage of them here, they attracted less publicity than they deserved and far less than would be the case today. His batting and bowling averages in both the West Indies and India are especially impressive.

Yep.
A very underrated cricketer IMO.
Only three men in test history have taken 100+ wickets and averaged 40+ with the bat. Gary Sobers, Jaques kallis and Tony Greig.

RIP.

What sums up Greigy best is that brave innings he made against India at Eden Gardens, Calcutta in 1976/1977, when after feeling very unwell with a high temperature and being sick whilst vomiting a lot at night he had the strength of character, willpower and the guts needed to reach the landmark century whilst batting under another hot sun the following day. That test series is probably Greig's best win during his period in charge as the England captain and he had that knack of being able to somehow get the best out of all the cricketers under his charge of average playing level ability such as David Steele in the 1975 ashes test series when England's batting was getting a hammering from the two Australian quicks Lillee and Thomson.

Tony Greig, that is a bit of a shock to the system.


Very useful cricketer. Brings back a few memories this and on his day just what a lovely batsman he was. Lovely timer and very straight, not without some delicacy. Glorious driver and not bad off his legs either. Loved his bowling action. Good bowler I thought. Intelligent cricketer. A tall, rather handsome figure. The shirt collar always turned up. And of course the pigeon toes.

RIP



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZZjYC946a4

It's being reported that Christopher Martin Jenkins has died of cancer, aged 67, today as well. Sad, sad times. Thoughts go out to both families.

Such sad news. I loved listening to him call the game.