Tony Greig died today from a heart attack at age 66. He was a very good all rounder and later a noted commentator (I must admit I couldn’t stand him and Lawry).
And now Mike Hussey has announced his retirement from International cricket- his last Test will be against Sri Lanka on Jan 3 rd. He will play a few one day games after that.
Both pieces of news surprised me.
RIP Grieg and bye bye Hussey. I liked Grieg, one of the last genuinely interesting commentators.
Yeah, Hussey sure proved me wrong when I thought he should have retired years ago.
Greig I liked as a competitor but together he and Lawry thought they were something special- which they weren’t. And they were really over the top. I far preferred someone like Benaud, Mike Coward or even Mark Nichols.
However, all my sympathy to his extended family. I sat near Greig on a flight once and although I realised he was a tall man, it is difficult to envisage how big he was.
Yes, he was about six feet seven and when he was bowling his approach to the stumps always looked slightly giraffe-like. An extremely brave close fielder too who thought nothing of fielding helmetless at silly point just about within reach of a wild slog.
With a batting average over 40 and a fair few wickets too, Greig had some claims to specialness, but really, when it comes to commentating, a man’s going to have to go far to match Benaud (a bit like Bill McLaren in rugby).