OTD: Tony Greig was born in 1946

Legendary England cricketer and media personality Tony Greig was born on this day, October 6, in 1946, in Queenstown, Cape Province, South Africa. He came from a sporting family, with his uncle playing first-class cricket for Border province, his brother Ian Grieg playing Test cricket for England, and his cousins playing cricket in Queensland.

A belligerent batter, Greig stood at 6 ft 6 in tall and was adept at bowling both medium pace and off-spin. He played English county cricket for Sussex and captained the side while captaining the England side in 1975-77.

Greig had made his Test debut for England in 1972 against Australia in Manchester. Greig made 3599 runs at an average of 40.43 in 58 tests, including eight hundreds and 20 fifties, with the highest score of 148. He took 141 wickets at an average of 32.20, including two ten-wicket hauls and six fifers, with the best bowling figures of 8/66. He also scored 269 runs and took 19 wickets in 22 ODIs for England.

Greig’s England career ended in 1977, and he became associated with Kerry Packer’s World Series of Cricket, becoming a huge player in the parallel cricket organisation. He managed to lure some big names to play in the World Series of Cricket, risking the bans from their respective cricket boards.

He remained with Channel 9 and Channel 4 as a commentator after WSC folded and became renowned for his unbiased, witty, and deeply enthusiastic commentary. Greig was a vocal admirer of the Sri Lankan team and the country.

Greig was diagnosed with lung cancer in October 2012, and despite undergoing surgery for the same, he failed to recover fully and passed away in December 2012. 

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