Almanac Cricket – Two Superlative Innings: When Tony Greig and Geoff Boycott Padded Up For Waverley

 

 

Tony Grieg
Image: en.wikipedia.org

 

The Waverley Cricket Club finished the 1974/75 season in seventh place in the New South Wales Grade cricket competition. The last time the club had been premiers was in 1944/45. Committee members were frustrated with the performance of the club. Something radical needed to be done to turn the fortunes of the club around. ‘Cricketing talents within local schools had to be rediscovered, their imagination fired and a program of action put into place’. The committee believed that this could be best done by engaging a ‘very strong personality player who could lead Waverley out of the wilderness’. Get this star player ‘involved in the schools, fire up the imagination of the youngsters in the district, [and] have them and Waverley players coached by him’.[1] There was little money in Grade cricket at this time. In 1974/75 Waverley’s turnover was little more than $4,000, with assets of less than $6,000.[2] The securing of such a star player would need to come from sponsorships organised by committee members and friends of the club.

Waverley initially contacted Dennis Lillee, who showed some interest but declined because he had taken up a business venture. Waverley then approached Tony Greig, a champion all-rounder with England. In 1975, he was one of Wisden’s five leading cricketers of the year [3] and was subsequently appointed England’s captain. Bruce Francis was Waverley’s major conduit to Greig. Francis played in three Test matches for Australia on its 1972 tour to England. He also spent three years playing county cricket in England from 1971 to 1973. He and Greig became friends; Francis eventually became Greig’s manager, ghosted his articles and helped him with speech writing.[4]

Cricketers in the 1970s earnt ‘low’ levels of income. John Snow, a champion English fast bowler, earnt £3,500 in 1977, in what Mr Justice Slade, in a restraint of trade case between the English cricket establishment and Packer’s World Series cricket, said ‘seemed reasonably typical of a county player’s remuneration and might not be thought large’. [5]

Greig was in his late twenties when Waverley offered him employment. While he had just been appointed England captain he realised his time in the game was coming to an end. He had a young family and was worried about how he would support them when his cricketing days were over. In pursuing a cricket career, he had turned his back on university education – he had contemplated training as a teacher. He didn’t want to finish in a mundane job once he stopped playing. Greig pointed out to Kerry Packer that former England captain Ray Illingworth ‘ended up flogging Christmas cards for a living in the villages of Yorkshire’. [6] On retirement players of this era, because of their lack of education, experienced difficulties finding remunerative employment, experienced loneliness, turned to the bottle and experienced higher rates of suicide than the general population. [7]

In his 2012 MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture Greig pointed out that prior to Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket venture [8], English Test players were only paid £210 a Test [9] (for the 1974/75 home series against England, Australian players were paid $557 a Test [10]). Greig went on to criticise English cricket administrators for their past interference in work he had produced for books or newspapers and ‘having to get permission to take wives on tour and paying more for friends’ tickets at the Centenary Test [in 1977] than I was paid for playing in it’. Moreover, he was aware that England Captains had a short shelf life; with recent appointments being replaced when they least expected. [11]

The Waverley committee worked their business contacts and put together an initial package for Greig worth $20,000. It involved him doing promotional work for Kelloggs and Waltons and a book contract with Hamlyns. Kerry Packer’s The Australian Women’s Weekly took care of his airfares. [12] After he arrived in Australia he was introduced to various businessmen and picked up additional sponsorship deals with Golden Boots and TAA. Together with coaching and speaking engagements, Greig worked out that he probably earnt $90,000 (or £50,000) from the five months he spent playing for Waverley.[13] By way of comparison, the average annual Australian wage in December 1975 was slightly above $9,100 dollars. [14]

The employment of a high profile international cricketer, the current English captain, to a grade side in Sydney was a unique event in the annals of Australian cricket. The news of his appointment, and his arrival, generated a ‘buzz’ of interest and activity around the Waverley club. Locals turned up to watch net practice and games. Membership of the club increased and local schools called on Greig for coaching sessions. Greig got on with other members of the team who enjoyed his company and his professional, competitive approach to the game. And most importantly, Waverley started winning games and, ultimately the premiership for the 1975-76 season.

The centenary of the Waverley club includes an extract from an interview conducted with Tony Greig in May 1993. In it he said:

I knew all about how Club Cricket worked. I had been brought up on it with the same sort of environment…and I knew how competitive it was going to be and what I didn’t realize was the extent to which these guys were yearning to win. They hadn’t won for some time yet they had some pretty good cricketers but couldn’t put it together.

If I made a contribution of any sort – forget about runs, I didn’t make any – it was to get these guys in the field to actually believe they could win.

Greig installed in his teammates a more aggressive, competitive approach to the game. His major innovation was to combine spin bowling with more aggressive fielding to bowl out opponents. With himself bowling off-spin and David Hourn (who played 44 games for New South Wales), a left arm spinner with a wicked wrong-un, Greig set an in-out field, with fieldsmen close to the bat to intimidate batsmen. Greig took 75 wickets, a club record, at an average of 12.36 and, despite his modesty with the bat, scored 544 runs at an average of 32.0. [15]

Following Waverley’s premiership in 1975/76 the club was looking forward to the 1976/77 season with the anticipated return of Greig. As England’s captain he was called on to lead England on a tour of India and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). The club looked for an overseas replacement. Again, through the auspices of Bruce Francis, Waverley secured the services of champion English opener Geoff Boycott. [16]

Boycott first represented England in 1964 and quickly established himself as one of, if not the best, opening batsman in the world. The interesting question here is why was he able to play for Waverley? Why wasn’t he with the England team in India and Ceylon? In 1987 Boycott published a biography. [17] In it he provides an account of seemingly never ending disputes he had with other players, former players, selectors, officials and administrators at his county club Yorkshire and the English team. In addition, he was also subject to criticism by the British sporting press; he was a great source of copy.

In 1973, Boycott had declined an invitation to be part of the England team to tour India. He did this for health reasons. In 1965, on way to an Ashes series against Australia, the team had stopped off in Ceylon and he had become seriously ill. As a ten-year-old he had lost his spleen. He feared that his health would be adversely affected if he toured India. In 1974 he fell out with the leadership of the English team and made himself unavailable for Test selection. He was also embroiled in more rounds of disputes with Yorkshire. In addition, he was worried about his form, and he wasn’t enjoying batting, even when he scored runs. He wasn’t enjoying life. Hence his availability for Waverley.

There are no details on the income he received from Waverley in 1976/77. Presumably the club found sponsors and he would have received income from coaching sessions and speaking arrangements. Boycott had a wonderful time in Waverley, both on the cricket pitch and personally.

I wintered [in Waverley] in 1976-7, scored a lot of runs and gradually rediscovered my confidence as a player and a bit more of myself as a person. Waverley was 12,000 miles and thousands of light years philosophically from the politics of Yorkshire and England. The club treated me marvelously and by the time I returned home I felt as though I had taken a rest cure. [18]

He had a stellar season with the bat. In fifteen innings, with eight not outs, he amassed 1,160 runs, a record for Sydney grade cricket, at an average of 165.71, scoring 7 centuries and 2 fifties, one of which was 98 not out. Despite Boycott’s efforts Waverley only finished seventh in 1976/77. Having lost Greig to England, the club found it difficult to bowl other sides out. [19]

In early 1976 Kerry Packer informed Greig of his desire to form World Series Cricket. Greig joined the project and helped Packer recruit other players. Greig subsequently achieved life time appointment as a cricket commentator with Packer and Channel Nine. [20] Prior to the hearing of the court case involving Packer and English cricket, there is film of an interview of Tony Greig concerning his signing of a five year deal with Waverley, allegedly worth more than one million US dollars. Greig tells the interviewer you shouldn’t believe what you read in the papers. He went on to say:

…it’s not that the funds are coming out of the Waverley club because, as you probably know, grade clubs in Australia, are simple non-profit making and they couldn’t afford that money. So it is really Waverley helping to secure contracts outside the game of cricket.[21]

Greig subsequently turned out for the odd game with Waverley in seasons 1978/79 to 1983/84. Given his business interests and cricket commentating commitments, and being in his mid to late 30s, he played sparingly and had a limited impact on Waverley’s success on the field over these years.

Geoff Boycott was offered a contract to play with World Series Cricket. Having recovered his confidence and peace of mind with Waverley he wanted to resume playing with England. In his autobiography he said,

‘I had been inclined to join his [Packer’s] players, but I had turned him down when I realised that his contract would cut against my contract with Yorkshire’. [22]

According to Waverley stalwart David Hourn, Tony Grieg ‘was arguably the most significant player in the 150 year history’ of the Waverley (now named Eastern Suburbs) club.

Tony not only changed the club forever but also club cricket across Sydney. Grade cricket clubs after Tony embraced professionalism at both player and administrator level, imported players, especially from England, on a large scale, upgraded coaching/training etc. and sought out sponsorships. Due to Tony’s continued agitation in 1975 the Sydney Cricket Association requested clubs to provide covered wickets for first grade fixtures and seven clubs immediately complied. And Waverley itself became the best known Australian grade club in England.

Tony was the first player, even though playing at club level, to show that cricketers were worth more than the pittance they were being paid by the various cricket boards of the day. Advertisers loved him and so did the public. [23]

Tony Greig’s employment with Waverley occurred prior to the formation of World Series Cricket. The Waverley club demonstrated that by adopting a bold entrepreneurial approach funds could be obtained from sponsors to employ a star player. Kerry Packer, in the form of support provided by his The Australian Women’s Weekly in flying Greig to Australia, was part of the Waverley consortium that brought Greig to the club. Greig’s employment demonstrated that sponsorship dollars could be found at grade level for a talented player. Kerry Packer presumably thought, what riches could be obtained if only he could find a way to broadcast games of the best players in the world in international competitions? Tony Greig’s time at Waverley played an important part in Packer’s decision to launch World Series Cricket and the associated professionalism and increased income for both players and others [24] associated with the game that followed thereafter.

In 1982 Greig was managing director of Lion Insurance. He introduced an insurance scheme for players with sports’ injuries. The scheme was designed to cover medical benefits but also time lost from work. [25] An obituary published by Wisden pointed out that during the 1970s Greig had once stood up at a meeting of the Professional Cricketers’ Association and suggested that players should work-to-rule on Sundays. [26]

Waverley’s employment of Tony Greig, and to a lesser extent Geoff Boycott, in the mid-1970s was a major turning point in the history of cricket; a watershed moment. Cricket was converted from a sporting activity into which small amounts of money flowed into a commercial activity which generated ‘substantial’ sums of money; such money, which, in turn, would be utilised to improve the income and general welfare of players. Tony Greig changed cricket forever. He is one of the most important players in the history of cricket; certainly in the modern era. He should be included in the pantheon of those players who through their actions improved the financial position and well being of their fellow professionals.

 

(The author thanks the Eastern Suburbs Cricket Club for help with sources for this article.)

 

Waverley (Publication of Waverley Historical Society) Issue 2 – December 2025; reproduced with permission.

[1] John Morrison, “Up the Waves”: A History of the Waverley Cricket Club Inc. 1894-1994, Waverley Cricket Club, Sydney, 1994, p. 217.

[2] Morrison, p. 218.

[3] Wisden Cricketers’ Almanac, 1975, Gunn & Moore, Nottingham, 1975.

[4] Joyce Greig and Mark Greig, Tony Greig: Love, War and Cricket: A Family Memoir, MacMillan, Sydney, 2013, p. 161.

[5] Greig v Insole [1978] 1 WLR 302, at 315.

[6] Greig and Greig, p. 181.

[7] Michael Henderson, That Will Be England Gone: The Last Summer of Cricket, Constable, London, 2020, pp. 69-72; Shaun McNee, Suicide in Cricket: A Sociological Explanation, University of Chester, Master of Science Dissertation, September 2013.

[8] Gideon Haigh, The Cricket War: The Inside Story Of Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket, Text Publishing, Melbourne, 1993.

[9] The 2012 MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture, Delivered by Tony Greig, Tuesday 26th June 2012, Nursery Pavilion, Lord’s Cricket Ground, p. 2.

[10] Braham Dabscheck, ‘The Professional Cricketers’ Association of Australia’, Sporting Traditions, 8/1, 1991, p. 7.

[11] The 2012 MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture, p. 2.

[12] Morrison, p. 222.

[13] Greig and Greig, p. 180; The 2012 MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture, p. 2.

[14] Australian Bureau of Statistics, Average Weekly Earnings, December 1975. The weekly rate has been multiplied by 52 to derive an annual figure. It should also be remembered that in Australia the early to mid-1970s was a period of ‘high’ inflation.

[15] Morrison, p. 231.

[16] Dennis Hourn, ‘Geoff Boycott – A remarkable season Easts (Waverley) 1976-77’, Eastern Suburbs Cricket Club Sydney, 22 July 2023 https://www.cricconnect.com/profile/319/eastern-suburbs-cricket-club-sydney/blog/1311/geoff-boycott-ndash-a-remarkable-season-easts-waverley-1976-77, accessed 2 May 2025.

[17] Geoffrey Boycott, Boycott: The Biography, Macmillan, London, 1987.

[18] Boycott, p. 331.

[19] Morrison, p. 235.

[20] Haigh; Greig and Greig, p. 181

[21] ‘UK: Former England Cricket Captain Tony Greig Denies That His Five-Year Contract With An Australian Club Is Worth More Than One Million US Dollars’. (1977). Issue Date 08/09/1977 https://www.britishpathe.com/asset/236916/. Accessed 2 May 2025.

[22] Boycott, p. 333.

[23] David Hourn, ‘Tony Greig Tribute – Eastern Suburbs Cricket Club’, Stump to Stump, 30 December 2019 https://stumptostump.com/eastscricketclub-o__ZTVJ/tonygreigtributeeasternsuburbscricketclub-s__fuUi. Accessed 2 May 2025.

[24] For an examination of the subsequent wealth that flowed to Packer’s media empire, and later to the Australian Cricket Board see Daniel Brettig, Bradman & Packer: The deal that changed cricket, Slattery, Melbourne, 2019.

[25] ‘Sport players’ insurance plan’, The Canberra Times, 31 October 1982.

[26] Obituaries, Tony Greig [Wisden] 15 April 2013 https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/tony-greig-wisden-obituary-644079. Accessed 2 May 2025.

 

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