The ghosts of Tony Greig and Hansie Cronje must be having a chuckle at the end of the second Test at Guwahati between India and South Africa, in which India were crushed by 408 runs to lose both Test matches in the short series.

It was 25 years ago that Cronje led his country to the same margin of victory—2-0—in what would be his last appearance for his country. It was not long after that Delhi Police went public with recorded phone conversations Cronje had with a known bookie that not only brought his glittering career to a shuddering halt but also ensured the entire cricket world would be plunged into crisis. This was the last time South Africa won a Test series in India before the dramatic events that unfolded in the Assam capital, resulting in the heaviest margin of defeat by runs for India in their Test history stretching back to 1932.

Greig and Cronje had much in common—both were inspiring leaders, both South African-born Whites and both highly polarising and controversial figures, though for differing reasons. While Cronje’s claim to infamy was his role in corruption in cricket, for Greig it was when, as captain of his adopted country of England, he made a notorious comment about making West Indies cricketers grovel just before Clive Lloyd led them on a tour of England in 1976.

Coming from the mouth of a White South African at the height of the hated Apartheid regime in South Africa, the words carried heavy racist overtones and only succeeded in motivating the West Indies to go extra hard at England, and their........

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