Tony Greig is no more - remembering Chennai 1977 test when he played

Remember watching the tall imposing frame of 6 foot 6 inch frame, Tony Greig during that infamous tour of 1976-77; a photo in The Hindu those days [of course a black and white one – some colour photos did appear in Saturday Special of The Hindu, a Cricket supplement ?] of the tall Greig carrying the little super athletic Alan Knott, the great wicket keeper. 

Sad, that imposing person is no more finally succumbing to lung cancer ~ or to the heart attack at the age of 66 on a day after the boxing day.  Tony had been a familiar figure.  Born and raised in South Africa, Greig moved to England to pursue an international career. Greig played 58 Tests for England - 14 of them as skipper - before quitting the team to join Australian tycoon Kerry Packer's breakaway World Series.  He was a quality allrounder who fell to Packer's offer to be one of the architects, captains and chief recruiters for the World Series Cricket revolution. That brought his move to Australia and integral place on the Nine commentary team, a role he maintained alongside overseas work for more than three decades, until his diagnosis. Channel Nine's tribute, which extended as far as a half-hour television special following the nightly news, was summed up with these words: "Tony Greig is a name synonymous with Australian cricket - from his playing days as the English captain we loved to hate, to his senior role in the revolution of World Series Cricket, his infamous car keys in the pitch reports and more than three decades of colourful and expert commentary."

Early this year, he was back to the establishment delivering MCC's Cowdrey Lecture at Lord's in June where he explained the reasons behind his decision to sign with WSC, before entering into a typically passionate discussion of the game he loved.  Cricinfo reports that at the  time of his death, Greig was with his family, including his second wife Vivian, his daughter Beau, his son Tom, and two adult children from his previous marriage - daughter Sam and son Mark.

In Tests he scored 3,599 Test runs at an average of 40.43 and was also more than handy with the ball, claiming 141 wickets at an average of 32.20. A  right-handed middle-order batsman and medium-fast seamer, Greig  made his Test debut for England against Australia in 1972, and captained the national team from 1975-1977 after succeeding Mike Denness as skipper.

Mike Brearly and Tony Greig – photo courtesy www.dailymail.co.uk

He captained England to a great 200 win at Chepauk way back in January 1977, a series otherwise marred by the ‘vaseline incident’ of John Lever.  At Chepauk, it was the 3rd Test of the Series and England crawled to 171 for 5 on day 1.  Amiss was dismissed cheaply by Madanlal and the other opener, another South African Bob Woolmer made 22.  The reserve wicket keeper Roger Tolchard literally played no shots but remained in the crease far too long.  Greig made a half century as England were all out for 262 with Bishan Singh Bedi taking 4 wickets.  England had the mercurial Derek Randall, arguably the best fielder.

Indians were shot out for 164 ~ Greig  bowled just 4 overs.  RGD Willis ran in fast, long and furious and it was a sight to look at – there was Chris Old and the wily Derek Underwood but it was the left handed John Lever who took a 5 for … Gavaskar, Brijesh Patel, Kirmani and next Prasanna made double figures. In their second innings England declared at 185 for 9; with Chandra taking 5 and Prasanna 4.  Set to score 284, India gave a pathetic display getting dismissed for a paltry 83.  RGD Willis took 3; John Lever 2 and Underwood 4.

It was not a high scoring match and with a first innings total of 262, England won by 200 runs.  Chepauk on that match was bouncy and helped pacers.  It was during the Indian innings, the maligned vaseline incident took place.  Lever, who took five for 59 in the innings (two of them on the previous day) was reported by umpire Reuben to be carrying on his person a strip of surgical gauze impregnated with vaseline. Umpire considered it to be a breach of Law 46. The M.C.C. authorities did not deny the presence of the offending strip of gauze, but offered an explanation for its use. Their version of how it came to be discovered by the umpire did, however, conflict with that of Mr. Reuben. The umpire said that it came adrift while Lever was delivering the ball. M.C.C., on the other hand, claimed that Lever found it a hindrance and discarded it himself.

The M.C.C. explanation for the bowler having possession of the gauze strip was this: "During the morning session, both Lever and Willis had suffered from smarting eyes because of sweat running into them from the forehead. So, on the advice of the team's physiotherapist, Mr. Bernard Thomas, they went out wearing these gauze strips which were intended to divert the trickle of perspiration away from their eyes."

Ken Barrington, the M.C.C. manager, said that while there had been a technical breach of the law governing fair and unfair play, the offence was totally unintentional. At a press conference the following day, the rest day, the captain and manager emphasised in further defence of Lever that the gauze strips were not worn until after lunch and that by then England had made such large inroads into the Indian innings, that such unfair methods were quite unnecessary.  Years later at Lords in 1994, Michael Atherton was caught on camera surreptitiously rubbing loose soil taken from his pocket onto the ball ~ but claimed that dirt was merely to help dry his hands. 

During that tour, Indian captain Bishan Singh Bedi, however had suspicions that Lever had used polishing agent of some kind even during the Delhi test, when he routed Indians.  Whatever it be, it was laid rest more because it was a breach committed by the English and perhaps Indian Board was not all that strong those days.  Those of us who saw the match those days belived : Lever was unplayable; Indians fished out side the off and there was something that aided the prodigious moment of the ball when Lever bowled.  Lever took 26 wickets in that series but never reproduced anything closer later.

The tour of 1976-77 was personally very successful and significant  for Tony Greig as he defeated India at home 3-1.  Months later Grieg joined Kerry Packer to become a key man, was sacked as England captain.  Cricinfo trivia relates that that the last day of the Madras Test was the first time the BBC broadcast live ball-by-ball commentary from India.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar