BRAVE HEARTS-Anthony "Tony" William Greig

Anthony "Tony" William Greig (born October 6, 1946) is a former English test cricketer and currently a commentator.Greig was born at Queenstown in the Eastern Cape in Border Province, South Africa to a Scottish immigrant father and a South African-born mother. Educated at Queen's College, Queenstown,South Africa, the choice of this school decided his cricket destiny. Many ex-Sussex players had been recruited to coach the cricket team at Queen's College: during Greig's schooldays, Jack Oakes, Alan Oakman, Ian Thomson, Ron Bell, Richard Langridge and Mike Buss all came out for a winter of work in the sunshine. All of them noticed Greig's developing abilities, which led to a trial at Sussex when he was 19. He had already made a first class debut for Border Province in the Currie Cup. Greig's father helped him decide between university study or pursuit of the Sussex offer. Greig headed to the West Indies in early 1974He became the team Captain in 1975. The transformation was swift. In the second test at Lord's, Greig received a huge ovation on his way to bat, and delivered 96 runs. He scored 41 in the second innings and took three wickets. With a long gap between England commitments, Greig headed to Australia for the 1975-76 season to play grade cricket in Sydney. Greig was well known among colleagues as a man who wanted to take commercial advantage of his profile as a leading sportsman. He signed a number of endorsements and appeared in commercials in AustraliaIn When he returned to England, Greig caused more controversy in the lead up to the 1976 series against the West Indies. Appearing on television to discuss the coming summer, Greig's ebullient oratory landed him in hot water when he expounded the West Indies players' reputation for wilting under pressure1976, the West Indian bowlers managed to hit Greig's stumps often and purists were divided as to whether the technique delivered an overall benefit. Certainly, many copied Greig over the years, most notably England teammate Graham Gooch. The best performance of Greig's captaincy careercame in 1976-77, when England toured India for a five test series. England had not won a test series on the subcontinent for 15 yearsGreig rated the win at Calcutta, when he scored 103 on a broken pitch in front of 100,000 Indian fans, as the finest moment of his career.Greig was removed from the England captaincy for being involved in a major controversy.Greig first suffered an epileptic fit at the age of 14, during a tennis match. Successfully controlling the condition with medication and self management, few knew about it for much of his playing career. In 1971-72, he collapsed on the field during his first match for Eastern Province and half a dozen teammates were required to hold down his large frame. The incident was explained away as heat stroke. Returning from the tour of Australia in 1975, Greig suffered another fit at Heathrow Airport. His affliction became public during the Packer furore, when a number of commentators questioned his judgment in the matter and speculated that epilepsy impaired his ability to make decisions. These uninformed opinions were central to Greig's decision to leave England in 1979. "I am proud to have achieved so much despite such a handicap," he later wrote. Today, Greig lives in Australia and continues this commentary role