Gordon Greenidge - Product of the Royal County

[fredfertang]

Gordon Greenidge - Product of the Royal County

We are given to understand that Martin has batted on several strips of turf where, not so many years previously, Gordon Greenidge had done the same. Sadly Martin scored many runs fewer than Greenidge, but he still thought it a good excuse to write about one of the most punishing opening batsmen to have played the game

 

[Midwinter]

Thanks for another interesting read

 

[AndrewB]

Interesting to wonder how the 1976 series might have gone if Greenidge had opted to play for England:

1st Test: drawn (Greenidge 22 & 23) - presumably no change.

2nd Test: drawn; first innings were England 250, WI 182 (Greenidge 84) - with Greenidge switching teams it could easily have been England 300, WI 120 or so, leaving England much better placed to try to push for a win.

3rd Test: WI won by 425; first innings were WI 211 (Greenidge 134), England 71. Again, without Greenidge WI could have folded for hardly anything, but would England have done much better even with Greenidge against Roberts and Holding?

4th Test: WI won by 55, another big first innings by Greenidge (115), more than the combined efforts of the England top 4 (Woolmer*, Steele, Hayes, Balderstone) in both innings, England being rescued by Willey, Greig and Knott; plus with Greenidge in the England XI there'd have been no need for Steele (who had a decent series outside this Test) to open. Could certainly have made a big difference here.

5th Test: WI won by 231, 0 by Greenidge in the first innings, 85* in the second. Might have given England a better chance of hanging on for a draw.

*I hadn't noticed till now that Woolmer was the Moeen Ali of the 70s - debuted at #8, then moved all about the order.