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Greg Thomas troubled the West Indies batsmen with his fast bowling when
he toured West Indies with David Gower in 1985-86, but was only given
one Test match at home. Thomas was very fast, but inaccurate, yet was
successful enough against county batsmen not to need to learn to bowl
line and length against them. As they did with Bob Willis the selectors
needed to persevere with him at Test level to give him a chance to learn
how to bowl at world class batsmen.
By the time he had cut his run and
taught himself to bowl accurately he was so cheesed off with the England
hierarchy that he pulled out of an England side to join Mike Gatting's
'rebel' tour of South Africa in 1989-90. Thomas, known as the 'Trebanos
Terror' came from a Swansea Valley village better known for its rugby
and was thought to be the first Welsh speaker to play for England. He
made his debut for Glamorgan against the Sri Lankans in 1979. On his
West Indies tour he took 2-82 in Kingston, 2-86 in Trinidad and 4-70 in
Barbados.
A good enough batsman to score 150s in league cricket, he made
31 not out in Trinidad batting at number 11. He played one Test against
New Zealand in 1986, and one ODI, and in the Edgbaston ODI against
Pakistan in 1987 (see photo above), when at the end of a
spectacular first over Pakistan were 8 for two, with Mudassar and
Mansoor Akhtar out for ducks. England won by one wicket, with Thomas and
Neil Foster together for the last 11 balls. In 1989 he joined
Northamptonshire and was recalled for the fifth Test against Australia,
but made 12th man. He withdrew from the squad for the sixth match. (Bob Harragan)
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