Life and career
Thomas was born in Trebanos in Glamorgan. He was a genuine fast bowler,a rare sight in English cricket after the retirement of Bob Willis. However,apart from the raw pace,he was erratic and often had injury problems. [2] At his best,he matched the speed of the fearsome West Indian pacemen on the tour of West Indies in 1985/86,but leaked too many runs with his wayward bowling. That difficult tour was followed by one Test in England,disruptive injury,and then a fruitless switch to play for Northamptonshire. [1]
Highlights of his brief Test career included participating in a last-wicket stand of 72 with Richard Ellison in his second match, [3] and taking 4–70 in his third. [4] However,because he was in a struggling England side,and played most of his Tests against a dominant West Indies team,as of 2022,he jointly holds the unwanted record of playing the most Tests of any England player always to finish on the losing side. [5] He did at least finish on the winning side in one of his one-day internationals against Pakistan,taking two wickets in his first over and helping in the last-wicket stand with Neil Foster that secured a series-clinching victory. [6]
Thomas played for an England XI in limited-overs match against a Netherlands XI in 1989. [7] However,he then joined the rebel tour to South Africa 1989–90 as a replacement for Philip DeFreitas,defying the international sporting boycott of the apartheid state. Although he took a first-class career-best 7 for 75 for Northamptonshire against Glamorgan the following season,Thomas had further injury problems and did not play for England again. [2]
The West Indian batsman Viv Richards was notorious for punishing bowlers who dared to sledge him. So much so,that many opposing captains banned their players from the practice. However,in a county game against Glamorgan,Thomas attempted to sledge him after he had played at and missed several balls in a row. He told Richards:"It's red,round and weighs about five ounces,in case you were wondering". Richards hammered the next delivery out of the ground and into a nearby river. Turning to the bowler,he commented:"Greg,you know what it looks like,now go and find it". [8]
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