Grovel! The Story and Legacy of the Summer of 1976

by David Tossell

As reservoirs ran dry during England's longest ever drought in the summer of 1976, a bruised and battered England team struggled to withstand the brilliance and brutality of the West Indian tourists on the country's scorched Test pitches.

The full inside story of this most incredible series - including the recall of battle-scarred veteran Brian Close, the frightening bombardment of England's batsmen at Old Trafford and Michael Holding's remarkable performance at The Oval - is vividly retold, while Tony Greig explains his pre-series comments in a forthright foreword.

Off the field, the 1976 series was given a vibrant backdrop and raucous soundtrack by the West Indians' fans, yet a darker undercurrent existed in a period of ongoing racial tension around the country. 'Grovel!' examines the influence of such factors on the summer's events and shows why the success of Clive Lloyd's team meant so much to Britain's Caribbean population.

Featuring a full statistical recap of the tour, 'Grovel!' shows how the West Indies heralded in two decades of world domination, changing the face of Test cricket for ever.

Genres: Sports, Nonfiction

288 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2007

About the author

David Tossell has been a sports journalist for four decades. Long-time head of European Public Affairs for the NFL (National Football League) and former Executive Sports Editor of the Today newspaper, he is the author of 17 sports books. He has been short-listed seven times in the British Sports Book Awards - for Bertie Mee (Best Biography, 2006); Grovel! (Best Cricket Book, 2008); Nobody Beats Us (Best Rugby Book, 2010); Tony Greig (Best Cricket Book, 2012); The Great English Final (Best Football Book, 2014), Natural: The Jimmy Greaves Story (Best Biography and Best Football Book, 2020). He has also been short-listed twice for MCC/Cricket Society Book of the Year.
He has written books on football, cricket, rugby and American football.

Reviews

[Geevee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book immensely. It took me back to the long hot summer of 1976 when as a young boy not yet in my teens my life was endless football and cricket.

That year it was even more sporty as I watched the Olympics - including the stunning performances by Nadia Comanechi - as well as playing and watching (on tv) my favourite two sports.

Vividly do I remember the West Indies team and genuinely being scared by the speed and venom with which Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Wayne Daniel and Vanburn Holder ripped the England batting order - and batsmen - to bits. I watched in awe as Viv Richards and Gordon Greenwich with Clive LLoyd and Alvin Kallicharan knocked the balls to all points in and out of the park. I remember playing with my mates as Viv, Gordon, Andy and Michael and also as David Steele, Dennis Amiss, Alan Knott and John Snow.

What I don't remember, or even being aware of, was the story behind the title of the book: Grovel. As aboy I wasn't aware, or at least I don't think I was of the comment by England and Sussex captain Tony Grieg made in saying that he would make the West Indies grovel.

The truth of that test series was far different. The West Indies side that came to England in 1976 was mentally stronger than the one who fell apart in Australia the winter before - and where Grieg's comments were aimed.

Clive Lloyd, the West Indies captain, had four world class, ferocious and physically strong fast bowlers who could and did bowl at speeds just below 100 miles per hour. Their armoury of deliveries included bouncers, yorkers and occasional beamers to punish batsmen's bodies, minds and averages. Moreover, he came with batsmen who were superb and capable of scoring runs-a-plenty with strokes that cricket experts and young boys alike craved to watch (and try and play like).

The West Indies team had some confidence issues (problems) in Australia. Clive Lloyd used his excellent management and captaincy skills to meld this team and Tony Grieg unwittingly bonded and bound these black men of slave roots closer through his grovel comment.

The book is highly readable and incorporates comments from the key players from that wonderful and historic series. Mr Tossell is very good in describing the before and after of matches whilst his descriptions of the play itself is enjoyable and just about right for this reader on detail and action.

The backdrop to 1976 in cricketing, social and political is also drawn out and what one is given is a solid mix of sporting history coupled with players' memories and views.

I have read few cricket books (circa 10) and even fewer books on other sports in my adult years but for me this is fine writing. I would recommend for any cricket fan, and also for the reader with a very basic understanding of cricket who has an interest in 1970s Britain and how sport was played, especially with such sheer brilliance by young black West Indian cricketers.

The appendices include all the team scorecards, bating and bowling averages as well as short biography details on what happened to the men who played for either side. The final chapter also laments the state of modern West Indies cricket and how young talent has drifted to other sports (Basketball) and music.

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much as I love watching cricket, I've always found it hard to warm to full-length books on the subject, which tend either to be self-serving and poorly-written autobiographies by practitioners, or detailed accounts of matches I never saw, set out in the game's inimitable and - even to a dedicated cricketophile - occasionally tedious jargon.

However, the tale of West Indies' 1976 Test tour of England - which I did see (albeit via the lamented medium of live public service TV) - can hardly fail to be fascinating, for all sorts of reasons which are both tangential to, and intimately bound up with, this unique and culturally-complex sport. The obvious one in this case is the incident which gives the book its title: a statement, in the year of the Soweto riots, by the (white, Apartheid-era South African) England team captain to the effect that he intended to make the (black, African-Caribbean) tourists "grovel". It was a spectacularly ill-judged remark by any standards, and even though its author, Tony Greig, almost immediately apologised for the unintended offence he had caused, it was typical of the kind of utterances, in racial politics at the time, which were not sufficiently thought through.

However, Grieg's words also came against the background of a newly-resurgent West Indies team under the great captain Clive Lloyd. Determined to build a world-class unit exhibiting regional and racial pride, Lloyd had done away with the stereotyped casual approach to match strategy which had made WI inconsistent and prone to the kind of patronising attitudes exhibited by Greig. Having learnt from the Australian approach to fast bowling, he developed a deadly front line pace attack in Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Wayne Daniels, et al, who specialised in furious speed and aggressive short-pitched delivery - fury and aggression which was only fuelled by the memory of the opposition captain's taunts.

The rest, of course, is history - and this series has become history, not only in a sporting context but also political, international, and defining of how people of West Indian heritage in the UK see themselves. England were the ones who were made to grovel, old assumptions and practices shattered - along with the nerves and, occasionally, bones of her players - by the West Indian uprising. And not only were the bowlers devastating, but Viv Richards, the greatest batsman I ever saw, rose for the first time to the pre-eminence as stroke player and run-scorer that was to be his for the next 15 years.

I doubt we'll ever see another series like this one, and thus is a fine and gripping account of it.

[Asif · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable trot down memory lane as Clive Lloyd forges the team which will go on to dominate the game for 2 decades. This book is about Tony Greig's stupid comment about making the West Indies 'grovel' and how they responded on the field!

I felt it could have been much more in-depth and detailed with interviews from many other players but it was an enjoyable and fun quick read. Recommended for cricket fans in general and West Indies' ones in particular!

[David Pearce · Rating 5 out of 5]

1976 was the summer of the drought and the summer of the West Indies. For someone whose first clear cricketing memory was this series this book was a fantastic wander down memory lane. I was pleased by how much I remembered, but fascinated by how much I'd forgotten in terms of the details. Every page elicited an 'Oh yes, I remember' or an 'I didn't realise that'. The interviews with the players of that series were fascinating, particularly David Steele a real favourite of mine who was treated shamefully by England. My other favourite of that era was the late great Tony Greig and his comments from the viewpoint of 30+ years later were never less than thought provoking whether you agreed with him or not. An absolute must read for any cricket fan!

[Marcus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable read of a series nearly 40 years old now! Mixes nostalgia, humor and the nitty gritty of test cricket in an easy to read style. The descriptions of the games are excellent, but even better are the side stories of the people involved.

[Ravinder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful recollection of an infamous series

[Gerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poor Tony Greig, the England captain, chose the wrong word in a pre-series interview when he was talking about the West Indian's recent Test performances. Quite rightly saying that when on top they were jubilant but once the chips were down, they tended to fall away and 'tend to grovel'. He added that grovel was exactly what he and his England teammates would make them do when the Test series began.

Unsurprisingly the West Indian players, and the West Indian community, took exception to what they deemed 'a deeply offensive remark, especially from a white South African' and Clive Lloyd's 1976 tourists vowed to make Greig pay dearly. And sure enough they did exactly that for not only was Greig jeered every time he went to the wicket, he was subjected to intimidatory bowling from the West Indian fast bowlers, Michael Holding, Wayne Daniel, Andy Roberts and Vanburn Holder, to such a degree that he scored only 243 runs at an average of 30.37 and that included scores of 116 and 76 not out at Headingley (I was there for the century!). As for his bowling, Viv Richards in particular set about that so that his modest five wickets in the series cost him 67.20 runs each.

After the first two Tests were drawn, West Indies rolled England over in each of the last three to win the series three games to nil. In fairness Greig did indulge in a little banter with the volatile West Indian element of the crowds, in particular when, after a presentation after the final Test at The Oval he went down on all fours in front of the fans. They did manage to give him a cheer for that show of humility!

The summer of 1976 was one of the hottest and driest on record and as the series developed so did tensions in the crowds who were watching a bruised and battered England team as they struggled to withstand the brilliance and brutality of the West Indies quick bowling and exciting batsmen, with the dominance of Viv Richards leading the way with 829 runs at an average of 118.42. He was ably assisted by Gordon Greenidge, 592 runs at 65.77 and Roy Fredericks, 517 runs at 57.44.

And the bowlers also played their part with Holding and Roberts both taking 28 wickets at averages of an incredible 12.71 and 19.17 respectively, supported by Holder 15 at 24.26 and Daniel 13 at 24.38. This was indeed one of the most controversial and colourful tours, with a backdrop of a darker undercurrent of ongoing racial tension around the country, and was the beginning of West Indian dominance of world cricket for a number of years.

David Tossell's narrative encapsulates it all and goes on to summarise West Indian dominance in the ensuing 28 years before touching on the West Indies relative decline thereafter. And as for Greig, he gives an explanation of his 'grovel' comment in a forthright foreword and throughout there are comments from many of the participants from both sides. And it all makes for an engrossing read!

[Sanjeev Chhabra · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book about a grudge cricket series between England and the West indies in 1976.
Well written, well researched.
The build up hooks you in the beginning.
The language kept you going on, following the series page by page. Not once was I tempted to go on the net and check the scores in the archives, lest I should lose the fun.
Highly recommended.
This is one book that can be judged by its cover

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grovel takes a fascinating look back at one of those instances when sport transcends itself to become a social and political battleground.

When Tony Greig, on the eve of the first Test between England and the West Indies, proclaimed that he would make the West Indians “grovel”, he lit the blue touch paper that ensured that the series would go down in cricketing lore. His statement came at a time of considerable racial tensions between the black Afro-Caribbean community, the police and government. Added to this was the fact that Greig was actually South African, and his comment was made during the years of apartheid. Indeed, it would have been almost impossible to pick a verb that could have caused a greater impact.

Prior to reading Grovel, having watched Fire in Babylon, and being a lifelong supporter of Sussex, I already knew something of Greig and his reputation. Grovel, skillfully puts the whole story of that 1976 Test series into a slightly different context. Don’t get me wrong, what Greig said was chronically distasteful, but the story behind it, and the fall out after it, are a story that Grovel shines a different light on.

One thing that this book shows up immediately is how the modern game is bereft of any characters. Look at some of the players from that 1976 series; from England, Greig, Knott, Close, Amiss and Willis. From the West Indies, Lloyd, Richards, Holding, Roberts, Daniel and Greenidge. All of them had bags of character; some might even go so far to say that they even had charisma. And not just in the way that they played, but in the way that they conducted themselves. Unlike the modern cricketer of today who spends as much time in the nets as he does perfecting the bland platitudes to which he is expected to respond to the media.

Ultimately, and somewhat sadly, the book concludes as a lament to the West Indies remarkable domination of world cricket following the 1976 series, and that would go on to last for the best part of the following two decades. The author proposes some interesting reasons for why West Indian cricket has imploded, and how this has culminated in the chronically ran organisation that it is today. To put into perspective the scale of the demise of West Indian cricket, it is necessary to think of living in a world in which Brazil was rubbish at football, being routinely beaten by countries like Ecuador and Bolivia. Or, New Zealand’s, All Blacks being put to the sword consistently by Japan and Italy at rugby. The West Indies fall from grace is equal to either of these examples, and is so great that its damage threatens to extend far beyond the collection of Caribbean islands, it threatens to undermine the game of cricket itself.

Grovel is a fascinating read, informative, nostalgic, and thought provoking, a book that tells the story of how sport can extend far across the boundaries of play.