Читать книгу Cricket: A Modern Anthology - Jonathan Agnew, Jonathan Agnew - Страница 25

In 1976 I was on the Surrey groundstaff and was present in the pavilion at the end-of-series match that would ultimately complete the West Indians’ 3–0 domination of the series. To this day I can remember the amazing atmosphere at the Oval, with the West Indian supporters calling for Greig to grovel, which he duly did. Although Tony was one of my great cricket icons at the time, to see him on the outfield in front of the West Indian supporters on his hands and knees was both funny and sad; it was, however, the right thing for him to do. Tony was a great showman and if anyone was actually going to get down and grovel in front of thousands of people, then it would be Tony. Having spoken to him on many occasions about it since, I know that he regretted making that comment and admitted it was a stupid thing to say. He knew the moment the words were out of his mouth it was a mistake, but he was frustrated at the time by the interviewer, who he felt, if not exactly belittling England, was not giving them the credit they were due going into the series. Of course it would all come back horribly to haunt him.