August 8th 1985. The Meadow, Strangford Road, Downpatrick. Ireland v Australia

People were streaming into the ground to witness a historic occasion where an International team of world renown were playing Ireland an amateur side of butchers, bakers and candlestick makers. Remarkably the television cameras were there to witness the occasion and were about to broadcast live to the nation. BBC NI, UTV and RTE take note: Yes it's true, check the archives, we do play cricket in Ireland!

The Australians had been going through a period of transition but there were still many legends to meet in their team. Amongst those touring the British Isles that year were Test players Allan Border, Jeff Thompson, David Boon, Kepler Wessels, Simon O'Donnell, Geoff Lawson, Craig McDermott, Graeme Wood, Andrew Hilditch, Dirk Wellham, Murray Bennett, Dave Gilbert, Greg Ritchie, Wayne Phillips and Bob Holland. Enough big names to get Peter Lunney very excited for some autograph hunting.

However for one young Downpatrick and Queens University cricketer there was only one man worth meeting. If anyone has ever met Adam Green, Scrabble champion, tea connoisseur, cricket fanatic and the soulman of Saul, it will not surprise you in the least that he only wanted to meet one man; Gregory Richard John Matthews.

For all I know, Pete Lunney could well have Greg Matthews autograph but they don't strike me as the sort of people who would connect, if you catch my drift, dude. Matthews is your classic legend who would sweep past a crowd of fans with the pens and paper ready. He'd pick up a pen and paper from a kid, keep walking whilst signing his autograph and hand it back to some other kid down the line. Yeah, yeah!

But Adam had no interest in his autograph he just wanted a high five from his idol. Adam managed to miss and high fived Greg's kneecap as he came down the steps of the bus. But it didn't matter. Like attracts like and Matthews smiled at Cool Ad and an brief exchange of equals took place;

'Yo, bro.' drawled Matthews. 'Yo, Mo.' said Adam. And it was over, the only meeting of two of the great cricketing eccentrics of the late 20th century.

Readers might recognise many of the Australian names listed above and are wondering about Greg Matthews and in classic after dinner heckling style screaming 'WHOOOOO?' at their computers. Well I admit, he is a bit ‘out there, man'. Greg Matthews played 33 Test matches for Australia from 1983 to '93. He scored 1849 runs (four centuries at 41) and took 61 wickets. He played in 59 one-day internationals. He holds appearance and wicket records for NSW. Were it not for the arrival of Shane Warne, Matthews could well have been a household name outside of Australia.

He was and is a real character but most definitely not one of the darlings of the establishment. Having being described as such myself by a high ranking piece of dead wood in the NCU Board, I would be proud and honoured to play under Matthews captaincy in the ‘Loose Cannon' XI.

Follicly challenged he may be, yeah, yeah but he's done more jobs than eleven amateur cricketers in Ireland. Lover, dancer, punter, fighter, commentator, second grade cricketer and former Test and One Day International cricketer, Matthews is never far from controversy. He doesn't seek it but life is just something that happens for Mo. He has had more exposure in Rupert Murdoch's tabloids than Jordan's breasts.

Recently in a second grade game in Australia playing for Sydney University he spotted some dog poo in the outfield. He waited for the drinks break, drank his juice, scooped up the No 2s in his glass and put it back on the tray for the opposition 12th man to take off the field. Two months later it was all over the papers. (The story, not the poo) His club apologised and Matthews was livid.

'I was at that ground for four and a half hours and no-one said a word. Geez, I ran past it and thought how bad is that? It could have gone in someone's eye or mouth. It was a nothing thing I did, a spontaneous act. Why bring it up now? It's typical of weak, insipid people who hadn't the balls to speak to me face to face!'
(I know how you feel, Greg)

Mike Whitney who roomed with Matthews for 10 years confessed that it took him a year or so to work out that it was no act and Mo was simply being himself. Appearing on Australian television last year with Rugby Union captain George Gregan after an indifferent Tri Nation series, Matthews asked what every Australian wanted to know, namely: Why does the Wallabies team lack passion? What Matthews said was 'Yo bro George cool cat, Where's the love?'

Greg Matthews loves his cricket. Just before he made his Test debut in 1983 he was asked about the natural increase in wages he could expect. 'I don't care what money I get man- it's the buzz of playing for Australia that's got me.'

Matthews is fairly unique in that he has played cricket with all 4 Waugh brothers. He played with Mark and Steve for New South Wales and Australia, with Dean at NSW and with youngest Danny at Sydney University.

So how does he compare with the Waughs? 'People say Mark Waugh was a great player. He averaged 41, same as me. He played in a side that rarely lost. I played in a side that rarely won. There's one reason I didn't play more and the brothers (Australian team-mates) know the reasons I wasn't picked.'

A fractured relationship with Allan Border didn't help. Border couldn't work him out. In 1984 against Trinidad and Tobago, the Australian side were unhappy with the declaration made by the T&T captain so instead of attempting the runs decided to stonewall. Whilst the bowler was delivering the ball at captain Kim Hughes, Matthews could be seen at the non-strikers end with his trousers at half mast, adjusting box and thigh guard.

Hughes was later sacked and Border took over but Matthews already seemed disillusioned about the system if not the sport. At the end of the first day of his debut Test he said 'I thought I was playing with an average group of people. I couldn't believe how greedy and self-centered, and in fact immature, a lot of players were in the team. I couldn't get over how they did not give a damn about the big picture; how they only gave a damn about themselves. I couldn't get over the lack of respect for the leader, Kim Hughes. It was a highly, highly disappointing experience. I was shocked. I was treated like a third-class citizen, both by the cricket association as well as the senior players.'

Mo was definitely eccentric. Yet his relationship with the crowds was exceptional and much of the animosity towards him was through jealousy.

'Some guys chew gum. Some chew their nails. Some abuse their team-mates. I played air guitar. I sang to the crowd. I sang to myself and I danced. I said things to the good sorts in the crowd. Can someone please tell me what's wrong with that?

Last year at the age of 48 he claimed ready to make his first class cricket comeback. 'There isn't a brother out there I've played grade cricket against in the last 5 years who won't tell you I'm the second best spin bowler in NSW after Stuart Magill. I haven't retired yet and haven't had my moment in the sun.'

Talking about moments in the sun, Mo's most famously bizarre behaviour came a year after his Downpatrick appearance and coincided with his best ever performance. Mark Taylor had managed to convince Border to leave Matthews alone and just let him bowl and he responded by replicating his NSW performances for Australia. His figures of 5 for 103 and match figures of 10 for 249 in the tied Test match in Madras(Chennai) in 1986 were easily his best for Australia. (50% of Matthews wickets came in four Test matches when AB got out of his face. Border later said that one of his few cricketing regrets was not giving Matthews a fair go).

His Man of the Match performance was even more extraordinary considering he played virtually throughout that Test Match in a sweater. In 40 degree C heat and 80% humidity others were nearly dying of heatstroke. The huge concrete stadium radiated the heat and Dean Jones had to be treated in hospital for exhaustion after his double hundred. During his innings Jones wanted to come off the field as he was near collapse. Border shouts up to the dressing room "Is there a real Australian up there who wants to bat?" Several players were chronically dehydrated after food poisoning and Mo revealed it was Ray Bright who inspired him to don his sweater.

'When Ray Bright came back on the field, it was the most courageous thing I've ever seen on a cricket field. Here was this middle-aged, unfit man, dead in the water, semiconscious, delirious ! I thought I had to match this guy somehow. I put on a jumper to say, ‘Man, that's how easy it is out here.''

I doubt if any of the Grasshoppers will try to emulate that performance when they tour India in February but for me Greg Matthews may not have set the cricket world alight with his performances but he won't be forgotten. Like his Advanced Hair Studio jingles all I can say is Gregory Richard John Matthews, yeah, yeah!