Was Gordon Greenidge an all-time great?

[Harsh Thakor]

Gordon Greenidge-the most under-rated of modern batsmen Few batsman in full flow could tear apart any bowling attack with greater ferocity than Gordon Greenidge.Bar Everton Weekes and Gary Sobers no Calypso batting star hit the ball harder.He literally carried the bat like a club.When launching an attack on the bowling he resembled an army batallion making a spectacular assault to crush the enemy.He mastered the hook and pull shot which he executed with the audacity of a boxer .He combined cross bat strokes with some of the finest drivinng ,particularly through the covers.He also posessed an immaculate defence and his defensive strokes were as resolute as his attacking ones.Greenidge brilliantly blended defence with attack.At his best he literally gave a batting exhibition. In 1973 against Pakistan at Eastbourne he scored 273 for Hampshire the closest to a perfect innings.He first revealed his prowess on the internatinal arena his very 1st test in India at Bangalore when he scored 93 and 107.He proved his ability on turning surfaces in no better style .He was not so succesful on the 1975-76 tour of Australia and the home series against India.However in the 1976 English summer he executed three of the fin est test centuries ,literally taking the English attack to the swords.His strokes superbly combined drives ,cuts,pull and hook shots.Above all his hundreds won test matches for his team. In 1976-77 versus Pakistan he topped the West Indian batting averages averaging 53 runs ,aggregating 530 runs to enable West Indies in wining a hard-fought series by a 2-1 margin.Greenidge scored a particularly fine hundred at Trinidad in the 2nd test and in the series brilliantly combated the pace of Imran Khan.He performed better than stalwarts like Viv Richards and Clive Lloyd. In World series Packer cricket although overshadowed by Viv and Barry Richards he played some great innings like a spectacular 140 versus Australia.At his best he took the likes of Dennis Lillee to the sword and his driving and hooking was spectacular. In the 1979 Prudential world cup he was the most consistent of all batsmen scoring the highest run aggregate.He top scored against India and Pakistan.Later in 1979-80 in Australia he was the best batsman in the finals of the Triangular word series cricket cup finals.He brilliantly destroyed the English bowlers like Botham,Willis,and Underwood. He was hardly succesful on the 1980 tour of England or the home series versus England in 1980.Apart from a few fifties he hardly made an impact on the 1981-82 tour of Australia. In 1983 Greenidge's batting made a revitilization.He averaged 78 against India with 2 big centuries at Barbados and Antigua.In the 1983 World cup he scored a match-winning centuries against Australia and Zimbabwe.In 1983-84 in India his 194 played a major role in his team's triumph in Kanpur.He averaged over 78 in the 1984 home series versus Australia.However it was on the 1984 tour of England that Greenidge reached the helm of his career.At Lords he scored a match-winning 214 not out out of 342 in match-winning run chase.Arguably it was the best test match innings by a batsmen in a match-winning run chase and one of the 3-4 greatest test match inning ever played in England.Greenidge made the impact of a bomber destroying an airbase with one of batting's most spectacular assaults.The bowlers looked like cattle walking to a slaughterhouse or like pawns being moved on a chessborad.Greenidge that day exhibited the domination of an emperor.He went on to score 223 at Old Trafford and topped the batting averages in the series.To me at this point of time Greenidge was the best batsman in the world.He again had an unsuccesful tour of Australia in 1984-95. Under Viv Richards Greenidge had some bad patches but made some brilliant comebacks.In 1987 he was back to his best with a double century against New Zealand on their soil.On the 1987-88 tour of India he scored a superb 141 at Calcutta. On the 1988 tour of England and the 1988-89 tour of Australia he batted consistently well setting the base with Desmond Haynes for a resurgence to West Indies at the top of world cricket.Then he lost form in home series versus India in 1989 and England in 1990 before a spectacular comeback against Australia in 1991 when he scored a blistering match-winning 226 in the 4th test match at Barbados. Sadly he was dropped on the 1991 tour of England where Viv Richards bade farewell to the cricket world. Was Gordon Greenidge a 'very good' or 'truly great 'player?Would he make the 100 nest cricketers of all time?I would class him in the category of 'great' batsmen just a notch behind Viv Richards or Greg Chappell.He could tear an attack with the ferocity of a lion but also defend with the solidity of a boulder.In the decade of the 1980's Gordon Greenidge was the closest challenger to Viv Richards for the title of the best batsman in the world.Unquestionably Greenidge was one of the best one day batsman of all time averaging over 45 runs in the shorter version of the game.Statistically he was the best match-winner amongst great West Indian batsmen of his time having a better batting average,more centuries and better percentage of total run aggregate in matches won than Viv Richards or Clive Lloyd.Greenidge averaged over 54 runs as against Viv Richard's average of 52 runs in matches won.With Desmond Haynes he set the launching pad for the West Indian batting creating arguably the best ever opening partnership in test cricket.Together they registered a record 16 century stands.In 1979 in England he held the record for the highest score in all the county one day tournaments.No West Indian batsmen ever had a greater penchant for sixes as Gordon. If accurately analyzed Greenidge would find a place amongst the 100 best cricketers of all where experts like Cristopher Martin Jenkins ,John Woodcock or James Armstrong have excluded from their selections.He would arguably rank amongst the best opening batsmen arguably only behind.Hobbs,Huton,Gavaskar and Barry Richards.Remember Sehwag played in an era where the bowling attacks were considerably weaker.Boycott was not as spectacular a match-winner as Greenidge.Several experts have selected Greenidge in their all-time team to join Gavaskar.In Richard Sydenham's book of all-time xi selection sof 100 legends Greenidge receives votes as an opening batsman only behind Sunil Gavaskar.In the modern era he would have averaged over 50.Above all Greenidge contributed to the team's cause.Combining test with O.D.I.'s Greenidge would rate even above Gavaskar.Remember how high Dennis Lillee,Imran Khan or even team-mate Barry Richards rank Greenidge. Greenige's record in matches won Span Mat Inns NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 0 won match 1974-1991 57 97 12 4653 226 54.74 14 18 6 view innings lost match 1974-1991 14 28 0 434 56 15.50 0 1 2 view innings drawn match 1976-1991 37 60 4 2471 154* 44.12 5 15 3 view innings Viv Richards statistics in matches won Span Mat Inns NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 0 won match 1974-1991 63 90 8 4300 291 52.43 12 22 4 view innings lost match 1974-1991 19 38 0 1197 177 31.50 2 7 4 view innings drawn match 1975-1991 39 54 4 3043 232 60.86 10 16 2 view innings Observe how Greenidge performed better in games won with a better agrregate and average than Viv Richards.

[FischerTal]

Tu phir se aa Gaya

[Detonator]

anall time great? :WTF: mods pls edit the title. GG and Haynes are an ATG opening pair. They set very high standards. Also, GG gave q big turn around for B'ladesh team as a coach.

[King Tendulkar]

hell yeah

[Yoda-esque]

Title lol

[jalebi_bhai]

:hysterical::hysterical::hysterical::hysterical::hysterical:..........what a title.......nice bit of comic relief after today's disappointment.......

[maniac]

:cantstop: on topic if I think what it is-Hell yes

[Yoda-esque]

Only Haynes would know

[Cricketics]

No he wasn't. He was Ishant Sharma's bunny.

[Austin 3:!6]

Ek to match haar gaya upar se Harsh ka boring thread is back Dhat :mad: