If there is a poll on who is the most popular cricketer ever to visit India, Tony Greig will be somewhere near the top — if not at the pinnacle. Few visiting players have had a way with the crowd who just loved his cricket and his antics. Playing to the gallery, Greig obviously took a leaf out of Ken Barrington’s book.
Barrington had toured India in 1961-62 and two years later had a way of winning over Indian cricket fans with the right and timely gestures. As luck would have it, Barrington was the manager of the team that Greig brought over here in 1976-77.
But Greig’s love affair with Indian crowds and vice versa had taken root four years before. At 26 and very much the golden boy of English cricket, Greig came over as a key member of Tony Lewis’ squad. But his career really took off in India.
He starred in England’s surprise victory in the first Test at New Delhi with knocks of 68 and 40 (both unbeaten). He nearly pulled off a second successive win in the next Test at Calcutta scoring 67 and taking five for 24 in India’s second innings only for Chandra and Bedi to bowl India to a narrow 28-run victory.
Greig was the only player to combat the Indian spin trio successfully. He did this in an unusual manner adopting a policy of lifting the bat beyond stump height as the bowler approached. That the method was successful was proved by the stats — he was at the top of the Test figures with 382 runs at an average of 63.66 besides picking up eleven wickets. In the final game at Bombay, he not only got a hundred but had a 254-run partnership with Keith Fletcher, England’s best for the fifth wicket in all Tests at the time.
But his excellence on the field was second only to that of the spontaneous rapport he enjoyed with the crowd and the popularity he enjoyed with the Indian players. Perhaps, no other incident is more vividly remembered than the 6’ 7” tall Greig playfully lifting little (5’ 4”) Gundappa Viswanath after the Indian touch artist had completed his hundred. Viswanath promptly returned the gesture when he made an attempt to lift Greig the following morning when he reached his century — predictably not with much success!
When he returned four years later, Greig was a leading world cricketer and a past master in handling Indian crowds. Spectators cheered him whenever he entered the field and he waved out to them like royalty. During play, he would indulge in various humorous incidents that had Indian cricket fans eating out of his hands.
As a captain he inspired his teammates to play above their potential and the result was a rare series victory in India — only the second England squad to notch up this achievement. Leading from the front, Greig scored 342 runs at an average of 43.75 besides picking up 10 wickets. The highlight was a courageous 103 in the second Test at Calcutta when he was running high temperature.