Many tend to forget Greig was a fine cricketer too, says sister Sally Ann

Girls did not play cricket in South Africa those days.

But, Sally Ann did. In the backyard of her home in the South African town of Queenstown, she played with both her brothers Tony and Ian, both of whom went on to play Test cricket for England.

Tony Greig also went on to attain much fame as a commentator. He was one of those voices and faces that brought live cricket from the sunny Australian grounds to India, where the sun hadn’t been up yet.

Popular commentator

Greig was part of the great Channel 9 commentary team that included the likes of Richie Benaud, Ian and Greg Chappell and Bill Lawry. “I did not quite imagine my brother Tony would go on to become such a popular commentator, though he always loved to talk cricket,” Sally Ann tells The Hindu. “Many people now tend to forget that he was a fine cricketer as well; they know only him as a commentator.”

Sally Ann says her brother loved India.

“In Tony’s obituary, BBC radio commentator Christopher Martin-Jenkins had written that his finest moment was in India at the Eden Gardens (where he played a captain’s innings to lead England to victory in the 1977 Test),” she says. “And that was the last article Martin-Jenkins wrote before he died.”

Sally Ann, whose husband is First Class cricketer and former MCC president Phillip Hodson, has fond memories of watching Tony Greig playing Test cricket at Lord’s.

“My parents had given me a trip as a present for my 21st birthday,” she says. “And I came over, yeah. And I was there, I helped because his wife was pregnant, with their second baby. He was born on the 20th of June. And Tony was made captain just after that.”

Sally Ann had hit headlines in this country during Covid. She was called the ‘walking miracle’, after being given little chance for survival by the doctors. “I thought I had a fever after returning from South Africa and went to Lord’s for a dinner, where Kumar Sangakkara and other Sri Lankans were there,” she recalls.

“I was given some penicillin and the next thing I knew that I was in an ambulance. And they put me into an induced coma for six weeks. I can’t remember that.”

She attributes it to the longevity of her mother. “I have so many things to do,” she says. “I have always wanted to watch cricket at the Eden Gardens”.