Chris Greaves was the hero of the night for Scotland who defeated Bangladesh in a shocking manner in their first T20 World Cup 2021 match. He not only made a brilliant 45 off just 28 balls to shoulder Scotland from 53-6 to 140, he further took two precious wickets of Bangladesh greats Mushfiqur Rahim and Shakib Al Hasan with the ball to make sure that the Tigers remained six runs behind the Scottish total and Scotland notch up a famous win.
But Greaves, who did all the heroics and won the Player of the Match award was not even in Scotland’s scheme of things a few months ago and was working as a delivery driver for Amazon to make his ends meet. Scotland skipper Kyle Coetzer revealed this in the post-match press conference to showcase how much struggle do Associate players with no fixed contracts go through.
"I am really proud of Greaves. He really sacrificed a lot. He was delivering parcels for Amazon not too long ago, and now is getting Player of the Match against Bangladesh.
I am not sure if he will appreciate me saying this. Seeing the performance from Mark Watt and Chris Greaves with the bat today, they are lesser-known people who had to make many sacrifices to get to where they are today,” said Coetzer.
The skipper further went on to put in perspective how hard has the Highlanders player, who also applied his trade for Gloucestershire second XI in the English domestic set-up, worked to get to where he is now.
"Greaves isn't a contracted player in Scotland. He was on the fringes. He put his hand up, worked extremely hard and put himself in the picture."
"Going back a month, he wouldn't even start in one of these games. Look at what he has done. It is just proof in the pudding that there are some quality players around Associate cricket. They just need the platform to show it,” said Coetzer.
Greaves, who made his international debut just a few days ago against Papua New Guinea in lead up to the World Cup, was picked in the XI after he picked four wickets against the Netherlands in a Warm-up game.