Tony Greig was invited back to the Home of Cricket, Lords, after years of being branded a traitor, after luring players to Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket while in the role as England Captain. Greig was there to deliver the annual Spirit of Cricket lecture, and as usual did not mince his words.
Coming just days after the cricket committee at the ICC had voted unanimously for the Decision Review System to be introduced by all nations only to see it overturned by the full board at India’s behest, Greig said in his address “We can huff and puff as much as we like but this situation can only be resolved by India accepting that the spirit of cricket is more important than generating millions of dollars. It is more important than getting square with England and Australia for their bully boy tactics over the years.”
Greig was right to point out that for years England and Australia were the ones with the balance of power in World Cricket and pretty much what they said became the rule for everyone. The Board of Control for Cricket in India may not like his comments, but most Indian cricket fans will agree with them. The Spirit of the game must always come above petty differences and pint scoring and the sooner all at the ICC entrusted with running the game wake up to this fact the better it will be for the game as a whole.
