PakPassion.net met up with the legend early on the 4th day of the recently ended Test match between Pakistan and Sri Lanka in Dubai and spoke with him about the series so far, his predictions and a little about his style of commentary as well as his recent foray into the weird and wonderful world of social media.

October 2011

Tony Greig’s phenomenal career consisted of representing England in 58 test matches. He captained the national side between 1975 and 1977 and ended his career with a batting average of 40.23

In the world of today, the towering 6 ft 6 in frame of the Ex England captain is a familiar sight at most cricket grounds. He is a regular member of TV commentary teams where his no-nonsense style of describing events, on and off the field, has become his abiding trademark.

PakPassion.net met up with the legend early on the 4th day of the recently ended Test match between Pakistan and Sri Lanka in Dubai and spoke with him about the series so far, his predictions and a little about his style of commentary as well as his recent foray into the weird and wonderful world of social media.

PakPassion.net: Your thoughts on the quality of the cricket in the Pakistan-Sri Lanka series so far?

Tony Greig: I think it's been very good. It makes a big difference when you've got a good outfield, a good pitch, and I think this is a bit of a test for everybody. There is not really much in this pitch, certainly not in the early stages, in the pitches here [Dubai] and in Abu Dhabi for the quick bowlers in particular until of course there is a bit of wear and tear on the ball and you start to see a little bit of reverse swing. It's quite tough, it's quite a tough place to play cricket, and you have to take that into consideration, although the weather has been pretty good. 

All up, its been a good test for test crickets and I think we've seen some good cricket. 


PakPassion.net: How do you see the test series and test remainder of the test and ODIs between Pakistan and Sri Lanka going?

Tony Greig: I think Sri Lanka did very well to save the last test match - obviously a fantastic innings by Kumar Sangakkara. I think they're going to struggle to do that again, just judging by the way things are developing today. There has been a bit of reverse swing out there, they are obviously hitting the worn patches on the pitch a fair bit, and that makes a big difference. It seems to me, with another day and two-thirds to go, Pakistan are really well placed. They would be very upset, sitting in their dressing room now, if they don't win. It they didn't win this, they would have to be pretty silly. They are very well placed.


PakPassion.net: The rest of the series you think will follow a similar pattern?

Tony Greig: I haven't been to Sharjah for so long, I have no idea what the pitch is like over there. I assume it's going to be something similar. If you go one-nil down in a three test match series, you've got a bit of an advantage, in so far as that you're not going to let them back in. So many things these days that have a bearing on where you finish a series, like your position on the test match table. They'll be trying to pull themselves up, and I doubt very much whether they will give Sri Lanka much of a chance, given they play normally. Pakistan have also got this capacity to blow up, so who knows what happens in the next match? It's a bit too far to be speculating. 


PakPassion.net: How did you get onto twitter, and what kind of response are you getting?

Tony Greig: I'm having a bit of fun with it actually. I'm not one of these guys that wakes up every morning and thinks jeepers, I have to go and quickly get onto my computer. I tend to do it when I feel like it. If I'm sitting at the ground with nothing else to do, I'll go down that course. I actually find it, I'm slowly but surely getting used to it, I find it very informative - I think you can get onto some things, news of some things quicker than you might otherwise. There is a fair bit to learn from people who you follow, and you can be selective in that regard, it's good fun. Plenty of people feel free to have a go at things I might say and I in return will respond – I don't mind having a bit of a go myself. I'm not big on responding personally, because then if you get down that course you have to be fair and do it to everybody. At the moment, my pattern is to develop a bit of a blog on one side, I do that with the help of my son. With that blog, as I get inclined to write a bit more, will develop that side of it a bit more. In the meantime, have a bit of fun on twitter. It's good fun, I'm enjoying it. 


PakPassion.net: Your style of commentary is no-nonsense, you say it like you see it - is that something you work on or is that normal Tony Greg?

Tony Greig: I don't have to work very hard on it, because over the years I have been a bit disenchanted with some of the things that have happened in cricket from an administration point of view. My inclination is to call it as it is, regardless of what others might think, otherwise we might all be going down the same path. I think one of the things about cricket is there's plenty of room for different opinions. You don't have to be right, it is just one view, so I get a bit frustrated. I'm frustrated in this test match, we haven't got DRS here, I really am, especially when I see umpires put under serious pressure, which they shouldn't be these days. There should be less pressure for them and we don't want to see bad decisions, we don't want to see test matches won on a back of a bad decision, even if that was the case in the past. We have to grow up a little bit in that area. 

PakPassion.net: Thanks a lot for your time.

Tony Greig: Thanks.

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