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Cuthbert Gordon ('Gordon') GREENIDGE

Gordon Greenidge was born in Barbados and became one of the greatest West Indian batsmen. But while he seems to fit the model of the great overseas player in the ‘golden’ overseas decades of the 1970s and 1980s he learned his cricket around Reading and was brought to Hampshire and made his 2nd XI debut at 16 in 1967. He did not make an immediate impression but three years later he came into the first team and in 1971 formed the opening partnership with Barry Richards which for seven years was perhaps the best ever seen in county cricket.

The two men batted differently but both scored runs very quickly, giving their bowlers time to take wickets and Hampshire were the best Championship side in the country and in their history from 1973-1975. While it was frustrating that they could not reach a Lord’s Cup Final, Gilliat’s side also won two Sunday Leagues in that period. The first was in 1975 with Richards, Greenidge and Roberts well supported by their teammates. Three years later, with Tv Autocrat Kerry Packer threatening world cricket, the dressing room was less settled. In July Greenidge scored 65 & 53 in his last two limited overs matches with his great partner, before Richards (and Roberts) walked out. 

Gilliat became an emergency replacement at Portsmouth in early August but it was Greenidge’s 116 that led Hampshire to victory. He followed this with 48 as Hampshire pursued favourites Somerset and when he failed with just two runs at Northampton Hampshire lost. He scored 51 as they beat Kent and came to the final match against Middlesex at Bournemouth knowing that their only chance lay in victory. They batted first, Greenidge scored 122, Jesty made 47 and took 5-32 and Hampshire won easily. There was a tense wait until Somerset lost a very close match and Hampshire had their trophy. Greenidge was there again in 1986 and a third Sunday League title by which time he was one of the great Test players.

He began with 93 and 107 in his debut against India but was perhaps at his greatest in 1984 at Lord’s when Gower declared, setting West Indies 344 in less than a day. They reached them in the 67th over, losing just Desmond Haynes run out. Greenidge scored 214* in 242 balls and five hours.

The irony is that having grown up in England he might have played for his adopted country but while his powerful cricket places him in a post-war Hampshire succession including Roy Marshall, Robin Smith and briefly Matthew Hayden and Kevin Pietersen, he seems with hindsight the archetypal West Indian from their great era. In 1986 he was the last (ever?) Hampshire batsman to pass 2,000 first-class runs in a season and held the highest score for the county in what were then the three distinct limited-overs competitions. He was a fine slip catcher and once took 5-49 against Surrey at Southampton.

In late August 1987 he returned to Lord’s scoring 52 and 122 for the MCC in their great bicentenary celebration against the Rest of the World and in the following year he came to England again with the West Indies but he never returned to play for Hampshire. He had been based at Southampton for around twenty magnificent years but there might have been more and his departure was not entirely happy. Nonetheless, he did appear once more as a player for a limited-overs match in 1988, scoring 103, including eight sixes, for the West Indies against Hampshire. No one who saw Greenidge and Richards will ever forget those days.