J. G. Greig

J. G. Greig
Personal information
Full name
John Glennie Greig
Born(1871-10-24)24 October 1871
Mhow, Bombay Presidency,
British India
Died24 May 1958(1958-05-24) (aged 86)
Milford on Sea, Hampshire, England
NicknameJunglee[1]
BattingRight-handed
BowlingRight-arm slow
Domestic team information
YearsTeam
1893/94–1920/21Europeans
1898–1910Marylebone Cricket Club
1901–1922Hampshire
1902/03Bombay
Career statistics
Competition First-class
Matches 125
Runs scored 7,348
Batting average 36.37
100s/50s 15/32
Top score 249*
Balls bowled 6,550
Wickets 138
Bowling average 23.46
5 wickets in innings 8
10 wickets in match 2
Best bowling 7/35
Catches/stumpings 102/–
Source: Cricinfo, 11 September 2020

John Glennie Greig CIE (24 October 1871 — 24 May 1958) was an English first-class cricketer and cricket administrator, British Army officer, racquets and tennis player, and Roman Catholic priest.

Greig's military career spanned from 1892 to 1921, beginning with his commissioning into the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment and eventual transfer to the British Indian Army. In British India, he held the appointments of aide-de-camp and military secretary to the Governor of Bombay. He would later serve with the 107th Pioneers during the First World War.

As a cricketer, his first-class career spanned from 1893 to 1922, with Greig predominantly playing for the Europeans cricket team in India and Hampshire in England. In 125 first-class matches, he scored over 6,500 runs and took nearly 140 wickets. He was considered the leading "white" player of the time in India, and in 1898 he made the first double-century to be scored in first-class cricket on Indian soil. Greig was head of the committee which selected the Indian team which toured England in 1911, the first by an All-Indian team. During his time in India, he was also credited with discovering Palwankar Baloo while he was engaged with the Poona Gymkhana. The cricket historian Vasant Raiji likened Greig's contribution to Indian cricket to that of Ranjitsinhji's to English cricket. He would later serve Hampshire in an administrative capacity as its secretary from 1921 to 1930 and its president in 1945 and 1946.

Greig was also a competent racquets and tennis player, who won the Western India Tennis Championships. Later in his life, he would be ordained as a Roman Catholic priest and was appointed to be the first resident priest in Ringwood, Hampshire.

  1. ^ Mukherji 2020, p. 72.