Gordon Greenidge

Sir Cuthbert Gordon Greenidge (born 1 May 1951) is a Barbadian retired cricketer who represented the West Indies in Test and One-day Cricket for 17 years, as well as Barbados and Hampshire in first-class cricket.

Greenidge is regarded worldwide as one of the greatest and most destructive opening batsmen in cricket history.

He was selected to play for the Berkshire Bantams in 1967 and scored 135* runs in their game against Wiltshire.

This attracted the attention of Hampshire and Warwickshire, who offered Greenidge a trial.

Greenidge began his career in English county cricket with Hampshire in the English County Championship.

He joined in April 1968 as a 17 year old playing for the second eleven and was also given responsibilities such as painting the seating at the ground.

His fielding at this stage "left much to be desired".

Nearly losing his contract, Greenidge applied himself over the winter and in 1970 scored 841 runs in 15 second eleven matches and eventually broke into the Hampshire first eleven team averaging 35 in seven matches with 4 scores over fifty.

He batted as an opener with Barry Richards for Hampshire, first playing together in August 1970.

Gordon Greenidge said of the experience of playing alongside Barry Richards was "something I shall never forget. It was an education and an inspiration. If, at the end of my career, people talk of Richards and Greenidge in the same breath, then I for one will not mind it in the least".

During his first-class career, he scored a total of 37,000 runs with 92 centuries.

In 1974, Greenidge scored his highest first class score of 273 not out at Eastbourne for Derrick Robin's XI against the Pakistani side who were touring England that year.

He said that he had drunk too much lager the night before and had woken up with "the most dreadful hangover".

He did not recollect the innings saying "I middled every ball and yet hardly saw one delivery clearly...I can't remember a single shot but when I returned to the pavilion rather later than I had anticipated, I discovered I had made 273 not out".

He hit 13 sixes and 31 fours in the innings.

Greenidge played as an opening batsman and he began his Test career in 1974 against India at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore, scoring 93 and 107 on debut.

Greenidge made his ODI debut against Pakistan in the 1975 Cricket World Cup.

This was a quiet tournament for Greenidge, with his only innings of note being 55 in the semi-final against New Zealand.

It took four more years to score an ODI century when he made 106 not out against India at Edgbaston Cricket Ground, Birmingham.

The 1975-76 West Indian tour of Australia was considered by Greenidge as "personal nightmare so painful that I have spent my life since trying to erase it from my memory".

Greenidge scored 11 runs in four test innings and the West Indies lost the series 5–1.

He resolved, after that tour, to become "such a consistently high scorer that I could not be ignored".

He said that “I knew from that point I had to tighten my game”.

In the 1976 West Indian tour of England, Greenidge scored over a 1000 runs for the West Indies.

This included his 134 out of the West Indian total of 211 in the first innings and a further century in the second innings of the Old Trafford test, 84 runs out of the West Indian total of 182 in the first innings of the test at Lord's and a century in the test match at Leeds.

He scored a further five centuries for the West Indies on tour with one each against Somerset, Leicestershire, Middlesex, Glamorgan and Nottinghamshire.

His highest score of 133 was made against the same team shortly after the 1983 Cricket World Cup.

All but two of his ODI centuries were match-winning ones.

In 1984, Greenidge achieved the highest batting average of any player during the English season.

In his 16 innings, he scored 1069 runs at an average of 82.23.

He was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 1985 New Year Honours for services to cricket.

Greenidge received the ‘Hampshire Cricket Society Player of the Year’ in 1986 and played his final season for Hampshire in 1987.

Greenidge holds the record for the highest score for Hampshire in a 60 over game of 177 against Glamorgan and the highest score in a 40 over game for Hampshire of 172 against Surrey.

Gordon Greenidge was eligible to play for England but he opted to play for the West Indies.

In 2009, Greenidge was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.

Born Cuthbert Gordon Lavine in Saint Peter, Barbados, he was raised by his mother.

At the ages of 8 and 14, he was raised by his grandmother after his mother moved to London, England to find work.

His mother married, and Gordon moved to Reading as a 14-year-old to live with her and his stepfather.

He described racism frequently while attending school in Reading and left school without any qualifications.

He played cricket for his school, and the team won the Reading Schools Cricket League.