Melbourne, May 18: Former England captain Tony Greig has risked fresh controversy by suggesting that former Australia fast bowler Dennis Lillee was a "bit of a fairy" when he got hit himself.

"If you treated the Aussies in the way they treated everyone else, they found it a little bit foreign. I think they thought they had some sort of exclusivity on it and they didn't like it. There were people like Dennis Lillee, who was a past master at letting people have it, but he was a bit of a fairy when he got hit himself," Fox Sports quoted Greig, as saying.

"I must say I got a lot of pleasure out of that. I was an all-rounder so I could afford to dish it out, because I was going to get it anyhow. Having come from South Africa I was brought up in the same way as the Aussies," he added.

However, Greig did insist that Lillee was up there with the "two best fast bowlers I have ever played against".

"Thomson was as quick as the quickest," he added.

Greig's playing career contained plenty of off-field controversy.

His most daring act was when he helped Kerry Packer start World Series Cricket by signing up many of his English colleagues as well as West Indian and Pakistani cricketers, a move which cost him England captaincy. (ANI)