Merv Hughes

Merv Hughes was one of the finest fast bowlers to have represented Australia. Hailing from Victoria, Hughes is best remembered by his handlebar moustache, which was rumoured to have been insured by him for 200,000 pounds, a claim which he denied later on. With an unquenchable enthusiasm, Hughes entered the sports field at a very tender age. He started playing district cricket in 1978-79 before making his first-class debut for Victoria in 1981-82 against South Australia.

Hughes grabbed eyeballs soon after and he got his national call-up in 1985-86 making his Test debut at Adelaide against India. But with figures of 1/123 in the match, the selectors dropped him for the final two Test matches of the 3-match series. However, Hughes made a comeback for the 1986-87 Ashes series bagging 10 wickets in 4 games. His most noted performance came against a visiting West Indies at Perth in December 1988. Hughes bettered his first innings haul of 5/130 by claiming 8 wickets for 87 runs, his best bowling figures in an innings, including a hat-trick which was spread across three different overs (Curtley Ambrose (35.6), Patrick Patterson (37.1, WI all-out) and Gordon Greenidge (0.1 second innings)).

The Victorian picked up his fourth five-wicket haul in Tests against Sri Lanka at Hobart in 1989 to help Australia win by a huge margin and was a regular in the side. He decided to retire in 1994 after the second Test against South Africa at Cape Town. He ended his career with 212 wickets in 53 Test matches including seven fifers and was amongst the very few Aussie quicks who went past 200 wickets in the longest format. He was a useful batsman lower down the order and also had a couple of fifties to his credit.

Unfortunately, Hughes was never considered a one-day material by the Australian selectors and was drafted into the side only when another player was injured or unavailable for selection. He made his ODI debut in 1988 against Pakistan at Adelaide but could feature only in 33 ODIs taking 38 wickets. His best (4/44) came against West Indies at Sydney in 1989 and eventually quit the format in 1993.

A 6'4'' bloke, Hughes was always considered overweight with him being a notorious consumer of alcohol. He then went on to replace Allan Border as the Australian selector in 2005 but was replaced by Greg Chappell in 2010 after Australia lost the 2009 Ashes series which eventually resulted in them losing the number one status in Tests.