Gregory Richard John Matthews was born on 15 December 1959 and is a New South Wales and Australian former cricket all rounder.
99 Facts About Greg Matthews
1.
2.
Thereafter his career declined as the "effervescent and unorthodox" Greg Matthews did not fit in with the rest of the Australian Test team.
3.
Greg Matthews continued to play with success for New South Wales until he retired in 1997.
4.
Greg Matthews spent the 1983 winter playing club cricket in England.
5.
However, poor bowling by Murray Bennett in that game saw Greg Matthews take Bennett's place.
6.
Greg Matthews took three wickets in a shield game against WA, then scored 86 with 13 boundaries against the touring Pakistan side.
7.
Greg Matthews injured his hand while fielding in a game against Victoria.
8.
However, Greg Matthews was then picked to play in the Australian team against Pakistan.
9.
Greg Matthews was chosen along with state teammate Murray Bennett.
10.
Greg Matthews had recently applied to go on the dole but was ruled out on a technicality when it was discovered that he was playing in a McDonald's Cup match that week.
11.
Greg Matthews was picked to play in the Prime Ministers XI.
12.
Greg Matthews is a tough, useful, determined little cricketer; a steady, flat, off-spin bowler; a staunch, correct left-hand bat; and a brilliant fielder.
13.
Early in his cricketing career Greg Matthews was regarded "as a bowler who fielded energetically and could bat a bit" and a "complete extrovert, dressing to shock".
14.
Greg Matthews enjoyed clubbing and ignored the midnight curfew imposed by New South Wales fast bowler Geoff Lawson as "these were his socialising hours and the time he came to life", and his mantra was "'live each day as if it's your last'".
15.
Greg Matthews's batting was great and his overall performance was outstanding.
16.
The Test was drawn and Greg Matthews was kept for the Fifth Test, preferred to Murray Bennett as the spinner.
17.
Greg Matthews was Greg Chappell's batting partner when he was dismissed for 182 in his final Test innings.
18.
Chappell later said Greg Matthews was the strangest cricketer he ever played with.
19.
Greg Matthews didn't meet the stereotype of what an Australian cricketer looked like, spoke like, sounded like.
20.
Greg Matthews was picked to play in Australia's one day team for the World Series Cricket competition that summer and was praised for his fielding, but failed to perform with the bat and ball and was dropped after two games.
21.
Greg Matthews responded with a good performance against Tasmania in the Sheffield Shield.
22.
Greg Matthews played in two early tour games but was out-bowled by the other spinner Tom Hogan who was preferred in the first four tests.
23.
Greg Matthews bowled well against Barbados and scored 54 against Windward Islands as an opener.
24.
Greg Matthews was a makeshift opener in the second innings as Steve Smith was injured.
25.
Greg Matthews was omitted from the one day squad to tour India in 1984 and he was not offered a contract from the ACB for the following summer.
26.
Greg Matthews was unable to force his way back into a test team for the first three tests against the West Indies.
27.
Greg Matthews was not one of the three spinners chosen for the Fifth Test on his home ground at Sydney where Australia won by an innings.
28.
However, Greg Matthews finished the summer strongly in the Sheffield Shield.
29.
Greg Matthews was told he was recalled to the Australian side to tour Sharjah for a one-day tournament, then took part in the Sheffield Shield final, where NSW beat Qld by one wicket.
30.
Greg Matthews capped off the season with news he had been picked in the squad to tour England for the 1985 Ashes.
31.
Greg Matthews then went to England in 1985, where he proved popular in the county matches.
32.
Australia seemed determined to play an all rounder and Greg Matthews was in competition with Simon O'Donnell.
33.
Greg Matthews produced some solid batting performances in the county games.
34.
Greg Matthews was selected in the Fourth Test because Graeme Wood was injured and again volunteered to open the innings, but ran out Allan Lamb from extra cover.
35.
Greg Matthews joined me at the wicket to start an innings which was to 'make' him as a Test cricketer.
36.
Greg Matthews was picked to play the First Test against New Zealand at the Woolloongabba.
37.
Greg Matthews was second in the Australian series batting averages after the captain with 247 runs.
38.
Greg Matthews was part of the Australian squad throughout the summer.
39.
Greg Matthews was voted Player of the Finals and it was a considerable boost to Australian confidence as the team completed a lap of honour round the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
40.
Greg Matthews was selected on Australia's tours of New Zealand and Sharjah.
41.
You could never understand the mentality behind the crank phone calls Greg Matthews received in New Zealand, the egg-throwing and the incident in Wellington where a toilet seat was thrown on the field.
42.
Greg Matthews kept things going in the field, never said die and was full of enthusiasm.
43.
Greg Matthews certainly helped me: he has been a big plus for Australia.
44.
Greg Matthews began the tour well with 57 in a tour game.
45.
Greg Matthews was still nursing a shoulder injury from the WSC series but was picked in the first test team.
46.
Greg Matthews likes meeting people but has been prevented from mingling socially.
47.
We just shook our heads in disbelief, because it was so hot with 90-degree humidity, but as usual Greg Matthews had a theory.
48.
Greg Matthews explained that nomadic herders in the desert wore woollen coats because they kept the cool air in, thus acting as a kind of air-conditioner.
49.
Greg Matthews took five wickets in the first tour game, and made 99 against Bombay.
50.
The Second Test began with three days of rain and Greg Matthews did not bat or bowl.
51.
Greg Matthews took 14 wickets and made 91 runs in the series, his most successful with the ball.
52.
When, at the start of the following season, Australia found themselves in trouble against England in the Brisbane Test, there was an extraordinary display of faith in his ability: up in the Press-box at the Gabba the assembled army of journalists, almost to a man, uttered statesments of relief when they saw Greg Matthews emerging from the pavilion at number seven.
53.
Greg Matthews was the man to stop the rot they felt.
54.
Greg Matthews duly made fifty and by dogged batting and a good deal of talking managed to stave off a second defeat in the next game at Perth.
55.
Greg Matthews returned to Australia as with improved all-rounder credentials and the Test team's first choice spinner.
56.
Greg Matthews was the most senior of bowlers, and had played as many Tests as the others combined; Bruce Reid, Steve Waugh, Merv Hughes and Chris Matthews.
57.
The Fourth Test at Melbourne was a debacle as the Australian batsmen threw their wickets away to Ian Botham and Gladstone Small and losing inside three days; Greg Matthews made 14 and 0.
58.
Greg Matthews shouldn't have been in the side in Adelaide or Melbourne and that was proved when his captain didn't ask him to bowl a single over last Friday and Saturday.
59.
Greg Matthews's appointment in the fourth Test ahead of Greg Ritchie was a disgraceful selection.
60.
Greg Matthews only played one game in the Benson and Hedges One Day Challenge.
61.
Greg Matthews did keep his place in the Australian one day squad.
62.
Greg Matthews ended the Australian summer with a century for NSW against Victoria.
63.
The tour did not go well for Greg Matthews who was fined $1,000 for disciplinary reasons.
64.
Greg Matthews was dropped from the squad to go to India and Pakistan for the 1987 World Cup in favour of Tim May, in what was described as "a shock omission".
65.
Greg Matthews then represented Australia in the World All-Rounders Cricket Championship.
66.
Greg Matthews would remain out of favour with the Australian Test selectors for four years.
67.
Greg Matthews was selected in the Prime Ministers XI to play the touring New Zealand side.
68.
Greg Matthews was overlooked for the 1989 Ashes in favor of Tim May and Trevor Hohns.
69.
Greg Matthews was always excellent for the shock-value element, but a guy who could play better than he probably ever realised and who record as an all-rounder for NSW is unrivalled.
70.
Greg Matthews was picked in an Australian XI to play the touring English in Hobart then was picked in the squad for the first test.
71.
Peter Taylor had not proved to be a long-term success and Greg Matthews was the only Australian spinner in the side, apart from Allan Border.
72.
Greg Matthews was omitted in favour of Peter Taylor for the one day team.
73.
However, when Taylor fell injured Greg Matthews was called up in his place and played a number of games.
74.
Greg Matthews was eventually dropped from the one day team when Taylor got better.
75.
Greg Matthews was overlooked for Peter Taylor in Australia's one day side.
76.
Greg Matthews was Australia's most successful spin bowler that summer.
77.
Greg Matthews took seven wickets at home and two or three of them came in the second innings in Sydney, when England was slogging.
78.
Greg Matthews was picked in the second test but was out-bowled by Allan Border.
79.
Greg Matthews scored some useful runs in the FAI Cup Final, with NSW beating WA.
80.
Greg Matthews was fined $5,000 for excessive appealing during a Shield game against WA.
81.
Greg Matthews scored 139 against Victoria, one of his best ever innings with the bat.
82.
Greg Matthews was included in the initial 20-man squad for the 1992 World Cup.
83.
Greg Matthews was the first Australian player that century to score over 500 runs and take more than 50 wickets in one Sheffield Shield season.
84.
Greg Matthews was picked again for the tour of Sri Lanka and here he did better.
85.
Greg Matthews followed this up with 55,51,57 and 96 to draw the two following Tests and Australia won the series.
86.
Greg Matthews was talking about giving up smoking but Benson and Hedges were a major sponsor of Australian cricket.
87.
Greg Matthews scored 30 useful runs and dismissed Brian Lara in a controversial stumping decision.
88.
Greg Matthews was kept on in the Australian 12 for the third test at the Sydney Cricket Ground and played alongside Warne in the final eleven, replacing Mike Whitney.
89.
Greg Matthews did keep his place in the one day team that summer.
90.
You'd have to say that Greg Matthews is better than Tim all-round, but that's probably not what we want from the position.
91.
Greg Matthews later hinted at politics being behind his lack of test cricket.
92.
Greg Matthews travelled to Perth with the NSW team to play WA.
93.
Several players went out to a nightclub; Greg Matthews stayed on his own and got in a fight, winding up in hospital.
94.
Greg Matthews had bruising inside his skull and spent several days in hospital.
95.
Greg Matthews was unable to force his way back into the NSW team that season; they still won the Sheffield Shield.
96.
Greg Matthews endured more controversy over the winter firing a toy pistol at a shop assistant.
97.
Greg Matthews had a reasonable summer, his form improving towards the end.
98.
In September 1997 Greg Matthews became the New South Wales representative of the Australian Cricketers' Association, which had been formed in August on the 1997 tour of England.
99.
Greg Matthews continued to play in the Sydney Grade Cricket competition for the University of Sydney team and had a bowling average of 11.04 for the 2008 season.