I. Aubrey Kuruppu: Tony Greig – A Personal Note
It was the Bard of Avon who said the ‘evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones’. Being human, Tony must have had his foibles. I would rather dwell on the good. I first encountered him when Central Province played a one day match against the MCC in 1973. Tony had earlier rattled the roof of the old Asgiriya Pavilion with a six hit or two. There was a suspicion of an edge to a Chris Old outswinger, but umpire Royle Barthelot, unaffected by the raucous din from the slip cordon, ruled in my favour. At the end of the over, the towering figure of Tony Greig was next to me: “Hey! What do you think you are doing? Why don’t you go?” A trifle sheepishly, I cast my eyes down and waited for the storm to spend itself.
My next close encounter with Tony was in the ‘box’ when we shared commentary. He was an international celebrity, whereas I was a fledging broadcaster. To me he was courteous, gracious, very professional and never pulled rank. Whenever we met on subsequent occasions he always hailed me, held out his giant right hand and asked “Are you well?”
Tony was charismatic, colourful, controversial and confident. He loved a challenge, though he may have got it wrong when, as England captain in 1976, promised to make the West Indians grovel. His competitive nature was evident when he threw down the stumps (almost at the end of the day’s play) to run Kalicharran out at the non-striker’s end. The decision was overturned to enable play to restart the next day. One man stood beside Greig until the baying of the crowd had subsided. That man was Gary Sobers. Good bye Tony.
Lone fighter Kumar Sangakkara gives fans 10,000 reasons to applaud
James Faulkner, in The Australian, 27 December 2012
Before Wade’s moment of brilliance Sangakkara (58 from 98 balls with eight fours) stood tall and lonely as the wickets tumbled all around. His three hours of defiance soaked up more than a third of the balls faced by his side and his runs comprised more than a third of the total. The standing ovation when he posted his 10,000th Test run – the equal fastest in history to reach the milestone – was the most moving act of the day. This Melbourne crowd knows its cricket and loves a champion.
He reached the mark in 195 innings, the same as Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar and one better than Ricky Ponting. Sangakkara’s straight back was a rod for the Australian bowlers who threw all they had at the No 3 only for it to come back, with tax. Continue reading →
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