Cricket, in general known as a Sports for Gentlemen, however sometimes some cricketers overstep the line of Sportsmanship and make some outrageous comments or do something unthinkable which is unnecessary or not required at all and sometimes those actions bring some unbelievable results or some memories which come back to haunt the person in the question.
The time I ‘ll be talking about here it’s of fearsome pace bowlers, if I say fearsome and Pace bowlers in a same line then I believe you got it by now that I am typing about West Indies team.
The year was 1976, West Indies played a test series down under and was thrashed by Gregg Chappell's men, West Indies lost the test series by 5-1 margin thanks to Jeff Thompson and Deniss Lilliee, the test series was followed by a one off Odi match which was won again by Australia.
So Captain Clive Lloyd than completly transformed the team to focus on aggressive & relentless fast bowling, this New West Indies team then faced India in their home and they defeated the touring team by 2–1. Indian team described the bowling attack “Barbaric and Reckless”.
So, when West Indies went to England to play a 5 match test series and a 3 match one day series, the press was talking about the Pace Battery of West Indies and how aggressive they are etc.
Just before the start of the series The then Captain of England Late Tony Greig was Interviewed on BBC's midweek Sports Program ‘Sportsnight' The interview was conducted on the roof of Hove’s Pavilion in Sussex.
Gregg was forced to respond to the questions that what are the chances of English team to defeat this young side of West Indies at this interview he made a controversial Statement
"I like to think that people are building these West Indians up, because I am not really sure they’re as good as everyone thinks they are, sure, they’ve got a couple of fast bowlers, but… you must remember that (if) the West Indian get on top they are magnificent cricketers, but if they’re down, they grovel. And I intend, with the help of Closey and a few others, to make them grovel.” (Wikipedia)
This comments was exactly West Indies required at that time as Viv Richards mentioned
“In other words, he was going to have us down on our knees, begging for mercy! This was the greatest motivating speech the England captain could have given to any West Indian team.” (Wikipedia).
West Indies bowlers make it sure that he will regret his comments later on.
In the Test series :-
The First two matches were drawn which gave England hope that the threat is negated however West Indies bowlers have bowled their team to victories in last 3 matches of series. They bowled with relentless aggression and completely dominate the opposition, through out the whole series Tony was not able to contribute much barring the 4th test Match (where he scored a brilliant 116 in 1st and a fine 76 in 2nd innings), End result West Indies won the 5 match Test series 3–0.
During the final match of the series when defeat was eminent then Greig performed a ‘Grovel' of his own, which was was received with applause from a large portion of the West Indians fans present that had been previously taunting the England captain.
The test series followed up with a Three match one day series which again was in favour of West Indies 3–0.
Tony was haunted by the grovel incident through out his life, as per wikipedia
Greig claimed the word grovel was used only as a response to the way the interviewer had been discrediting the England team as major underdogs in the match-up. When asked about the remark prior to the first test, the West Indian captain Clive Lloyd gave Greig the benefit of the doubt surrounding the use of the word grovel. Lloyd however declared being furious about how Greig had patronizingly characterized the West Indies team as unprofessional and nonchalant Calypso cricketers.
Even in an interview with Sky Sports "Saturday Story" only around a year before Greig died, he was prepared to apologise on camera for his remark - even some 35 years after he had originally made it.
Tony Greig was a great men, a great cricketer and a brilliant commentator, however he was human and human tend to mistakes.
Source:- who's grovelling now?,Cricinfo, YouTube, Wikipedia
Images :- Google.
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