Greenidge plays down hardest hitter tag

SUNDAY MiD DAY catches up with West Indian batting great Gordon Greenidge

Greenidge plays down hardest hitter tag

SUNDAY MiD DAY catches up with West Indian batting great Gordon Greenidge

The Ceat retro awards night at the Taj on Friday witnessed some of the most dynamic names of World Cup cricket ufffd Kapil Dev, Aravinda de Silva, Matthew Hayden ufffd all known for their big-hitting. In fact, De Silva was called Mad Max.

There was also Gordon Greenidge. Pundits were not wrong when they called him the hardest hitter of a cricket ball in the 1970s and 1980s.

Reading his autobiography, The Man in the Middle (released in 1980), one discovers that he did not exactly belong to the learned category. He did a bit of his schooling in England and faced trying times. "Coming into the educational system as a 14-year-old, I never came to terms with colossal changes. I was good at woodwork and I enjoyed history and geography but concentration has never been one of my strong points and I left school, like so many West Indians in Britain," he wrote.

He now wants to contribute to the growth of 'educated sportspersons' in his region. On Saturday, the West Indies batting great (7558 runs in 108 Tests; 5134 in 128 ODIs) visited the D Y Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai where he met Vijay Patil (president, D Y Patil Sports Academy) and former Test cricketer Abey Kuruvilla to initiate talks of a reciprocal arrangement between two Universities. He was impressed with the magnificent stadium (and facilities) which ironically has yet to be awarded a first-class fixture although it has hosted Indian Premier League games as well as an India vs Australia ODI in 2009 that was ruined by rain.

Greenidge enquired about Balwinder Singh Sandhu, who foxed and bowled him with his inswinger in the 1983 World Cup final. "I have had Interpol on the look out for him. I got blamed for that defeat because it all started with my dismissal," he said with a laugh. Back to his brutal hitting. Richie Benaud, who had Greenidge as a contender in the opening position for his Greatest XI DVD, said: "Very, very few people hit the ball harder. He gets full marks for entertainment from me. Sometimes you wondered what he was thinking because all of a sudden, the opposition were on top and now, Gordon's on top." The voice of cricket eventually chose Sunil Gavaskar and Jack Hobbs as openers.

"Hardest hitter? I don't know about that," Greenidge responded modestly on Saturday: "You talk about Sir Viv Richards ufffd Kapil Dev too struck the ball well, very well. I just felt I needed to set the tone for myself by attacking and once I was able to apply that pressure, I felt had a better chance of succeeding because the opposition teamu00a0 and bowler had to think differently."

Greenidge, who turns 60 this May, was part of a West Indies team which dominated world cricket for over three decades. "I think it was summed up by Desmond Haynes in 1984. He said, 'I feel pretty strange especially when we start to walk out on the field. I think they (opponents) feel that they are going to come second every time.' "

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