He was (to my knowledge) the first cricketer to be called The Little Master in the Indian subcontinent, or, anywhere.
He was also the first great batsman – or cricketer – to play here.
+
He was called 'Jungly' here because John Glennie Greig was difficult to pronounce.
This seems to be a trend. TC Longfield became Tulsi Chand and AL Hosie Amrit Lal.
Greig was an Englishman but he was born in Mhow, and played a chunk of his matches in India.
+
Greig grew up in England, but came to India with the Royal Army.
He was a superstar in the Bombay Presidency match, an annual fixture between Europeans and Parsees (this was later expanded to Triangular, then Quadrangular, then Pentangular).
+
Douglas Jardine, Cricket's Iron Duke, was born on this day, 1900.
Two things sum him up.
First, he hated Australians with a passion.
And secondly, he hated losing. To him, cricket was nothing but war.
Let us go over the two points.
+
Not only did Jardine hate Australia, he never bothered to hide his feelings.
Even before the Bodyline tour, when it became known that he had been named captain, his coach Rockley Wilson had mixed reaction: "We shall win the Ashes… but we may well lose a Dominion."
+
When in Australia, he saw RAAF fighter planes above the newly built Sydney Harbour Bridge and quipped "I wish they were Japs and I wish they’d bomb that bridge into the harbour."
Hatred. There cannot be another word for it.
The press asked for the XI for the first tour match.
+