Mervyn Gregory Hughes (born 23 November 1961) is a former Australian cricketer. A right-arm fast bowler, he represented
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
in 53
Test matches Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to:
* Test cricket
* Test match (indoor cricket)
* Test match (rugby union)
* Test match (rugby league)
* Test match (association football)
...
between 1985 and 1994, taking 212 wickets. He played 33
One Day International
A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...
s, taking 38 wickets. He took a
hat-trick
A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three.
Origin
The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...
in a Test against the
West Indies
The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...
at the
WACA in 1988–89. In 1993, he took 31 wickets in
the Ashes
The Ashes is a Test cricket series played between England and Australia. The term originated in a satirical obituary published in a British newspaper, ''The Sporting Times'', immediately after Australia's 1882 victory at The Oval, its first Te ...
series against
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. He was a useful lower-order batsman, scoring two half-centuries in Tests and over 1,000 runs in all. He also represented the
Victorian Bushrangers
The Victoria men’s cricket team is an Australian first-class men's cricket team based in Melbourne, Victoria. The men’s team, which first played in 1851, represents the state of Victoria in the Marsh Sheffield Shield first-class competi ...
,
Essex
Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...
in English
county cricket
Inter-county cricket matches are known to have been played since the early 18th century, involving teams that are representative of the historic counties of England and Wales. Since the late 19th century, there have been two county championship ...
, the
ACT Comets
The ACT Comets (also known as the Canberra Comets, previously the Federal Capital Territory) are a cricket team that represent the Australian Capital Territory. The Comets are the premier team of the Cricket ACT who are affiliated with Cricket ...
and
Australia A in the
World Series Cup
The Australian Tri-Series was an annual one day international (ODI) cricket tournament held in Australia, and contested by Australia and two touring teams.
The series was the primary format for international one-day cricket throughout most of t ...
.
Childhood
Hughes was born in
Euroa
Euroa is a town in the Shire of Strathbogie in the north-east of Victoria, Australia. At the 2016 census, Euroa's population was 3,275.
The name Euroa comes from an Aboriginal word in the old local dialect meaning 'joyful'.
History
Major T ...
,
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seychelle ...
. He started kindergarten in
Apollo Bay
Apollo Bay is a coastal town in southwestern Victoria, Australia. It is situated on the eastern side of Cape Otway, along the edge of the Barham River and on the Great Ocean Road, in the Colac Otway Shire. The town had a population of 1,790 at ...
and his first year at school came when the family went back to Euroa. Organised sport began in 3rd grade at Werribee. In 5th grade, he pestered his father to be allowed to join football at Werribee where he held his own, despite the fact that he was one of the smallest players when out of his age group. Hughes' enthusiasm for sport was described as "unquenchable."
Domestic career
Hughes started his career playing district
cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
with
Footscray in 1978–79. Footscray has subsequently had their main home ground named after him; it is now known as the ''Mervyn G. Hughes Oval''. He was selected for Victoria in 1981–82 and made his debut against the
South Australian Redbacks.
International career
Hughes first appeared for Australia against
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
in 1985–86. He took 1–123 and was not re-selected until the Ashes series against England the following year.
At the WACA Ground in 1988–89, Hughes completed a hat-trick that was unusual as it was spread across three separate overs, two innings and two different days. He had
Curtly Ambrose
Sir Curtly Elconn Lynwall Ambrose KCN (born 21 September 1963) is an Antiguan former cricketer who played 98 Test matches for the West Indies. Widely acknowledged as one of the greatest fast bowlers of all time, he took 405 Test wickets at a ...
caught behind with the last ball of his 36th over; ended the West Indies' first innings in his 37th, by removing
Patrick Patterson; and more than a day later, completed his hat-trick by trapping
Gordon Greenidge
Sir Cuthbert Gordon Greenidge (born 1 May 1951) is a Barbadian, former first-class cricketer, who represented the West Indies in Test and One-day Cricket for 17 years. Greenidge is regarded worldwide as one of the greatest and most destructive o ...
lbw with the first ball of the West Indies' second innings. Hughes finished the match with career-best figures of 13/217, taking 5/130 in the first innings and 8/87 in the second.
The Australian selectors always viewed Hughes as a Test match player rather than a one-day player. He was generally only selected for the shorter game when another player was injured or otherwise unavailable.
Hughes' physical presence (a burly 6'4"), handlebar moustache, a penchant for exuberant displays of affection for his fellow players, along with a tendency to talk to the opposition in inventively colourful language (his nickname was "Fruitfly" – a somewhat incongruous nickname until
Allan Border
Allan Robert Border (born 27 July 1955) is an Australian cricket commentator and former international cricketer. A batsman, Border was for many years the captain of the Australian team. His playing nickname was "A.B.". He played 156 Test ma ...
explained it was a reference to "Australia's greatest national pest") and a (some would say) "mincing" run-up (that at times stretched to 45 paces), made him a firm favorite amongst supporters, who would often imitate his warm-up stretches behind him en masse. In England, on his second Ashes tour in 1993, the crowd often chanted "Sumo" when he ran in to bowl.
Hughes played his last Test in
Cape Town
Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...
against
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
in 1994.
After cricket
Late in his career, Hughes undertook a stint with the ACT Comets, which turned out to be unsuccessful. He claimed only five wickets at an average of 46.80 over six matches (Rodney Davison,
Jimmy Maher
James Patrick Maher (born 27 February 1974) is an Australian former cricketer, who played One Day Internationals. He is "an attractive left-handed batsman with a clumping cover-drive".
Maher competed in the Gladiator Team Sports Challenge i ...
,
Jamie Cox
Jamie Cox (born 15 October 1969) is an Australian cricketer and former opening batsman for Tasmania in Australia's domestic competitions.
He then played county cricket in England where he captained Somerset. He is a former member of the Cricke ...
,
Shaun Young
Shaun Young (born 13 June 1970) is an Australian Football administrator for Eastlake Football Club, Canberra, and former professional cricketer who played in a single Test cricket, Test match for Australia national cricket team, Australia in 19 ...
and
Ryan Campbell
Ryan John Campbell (born 7 February 1972) is an Australian former cricketer who represented both Australia and Hong Kong internationally. He is the current head coach of the Dutch national team, having taken on the role in April 2017.
Campbe ...
).
Hughes replaced Allan Border in June 2005 as a selector for the Australian cricket team, although his performance as a selector came under much scrutiny after many controversial decisions and the loss of the number-one ranking in Test matches after the
2009 Ashes series
The 2009 Ashes series was that year's edition of the long-standing and storied cricket rivalry between England and Australia, and was part of the Australian cricket tour of England in 2009. Starting on 8 July 2009, England and Australia played fi ...
. However, Australia would go on to have a successful 2009–10 summer, finishing undefeated in all three forms of the game. Hughes though, was later dropped as a selector for the Australian cricket team and subsequently replaced by
Greg Chappell
Gregory Stephen Chappell (born 7 August 1948) is a former cricketer who represented Australia at international level in both Tests and One-Day Internationals (ODI). The second of three brothers to play Test cricket, Chappell was the pre-eminen ...
on 29 October 2010.
He is a prominent supporter of the
Western Bulldogs
The Western Bulldogs are a professional Australian rules football team that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier competition.
Founded in 1877 as the Footscray Football Club, and based in West Footscray in the o ...
in the
Australian Football League
The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...
and has also done some acting, portraying
Ivan Milat
Ivan Robert Marko Milat (27 December 1944 – 27 October 2019) was an Australian serial killer who was convicted in the backpacker murders in 1996. Commonly known as the Backpacker Murderer, Milat captured, assaulted, robbed and murdered two me ...
in the comedy movie
Fat Pizza
''Fat Pizza'' is a 2003 Australian comedy film based on the ''Pizza'' television series, both of which were created, produced, written and starred in by Paul Fenech.
It was produced by Village Roadshow Pictures and SBS Independent (uncredited). ...
. Additionally, Hughes has appeared on TV commercials as well, featuring losing weight with "The 14-day All-Bran Challenge" and appearing as himself in the English comedy show ''
Hale and Pace
Hale and Pace were an English comedy double-act that performed in clubs and on radio and television in the United Kingdom in the 1980s and 1990s. The duo was made up of Gareth Hale and Norman Pace, with the ''Hale and Pace'' television show r ...
''.
Personal life
Hughes was a notorious consumer of alcohol and food. Towards the end of his career, this was felt to have increased damage to his knees and may have ultimately led to a shortening of his Australian and Victorian playing careers. Having always been rather overweight, he participated in both seasons of
Channel Nine's
Celebrity Overhaul
Celebrity Overhaul was a reality television and infotainment show on Australia's Nine Network in which celebrities undergo a rigorous exercise and diet
Diet may refer to:
Food
* Diet (nutrition), the sum of the food consumed by an organism or ...
to lose weight and improve his fitness. He was the top performer (weight-wise) in the first season of the show.
Hughes is noted for his large
horseshoe moustache
A horseshoe moustache, also known as a biker moustache, is a full moustache with vertical extensions grown on the corners of the lips and down the sides of the mouth to the jawline, resembling an upside-down U or a horseshoe. The whiskers grown ...
. Described by Cricinfo as being "of incredible proportions",
the moustache became sufficiently synonymous with Hughes for him to be rumored to insure it for £200,000. In a 2013
Sky Sports
Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...
interview during the
2013 Ashes series
The 2013 Ashes series (known as the Investec 2013 Ashes Series for sponsorship reasons) was a series of Test cricket matches contested between England and Australia for the Ashes. It formed part of the 2013 Australian tour of England, which als ...
, he quashed this rumour as being false.
Other sports
Hughes also played
Australian rules football
Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...
during the winter in the late 1970s and early 1980s; at his peak, he was a key position player for the
Werribee Football Club
The Werribee Football Club, nicknamed the Tigers, is an Australian rules football club, based in Werribee. The club was formed in 1964 and currently plays in the Victorian Football League (VFL). It is the western-most Melbourne-based VFL club as ...
in the
Victorian Football Association
The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...
first division.
In the media
In 2015, Hughes appeared on the Australian version of the TV show ''
I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!''.
In an interview for ''Hotspur'' magazine, Hughes revealed he has supported
Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...
since the early 1980s. "I went to a mate's house to watch the FA Cup Final, everyone in the house was supporting the other team except the guy I sat next to. He was English, and I told him I was with him 100 per cent. Spurs won and I've supported them ever since."
Footnotes
References
* Patrick Keane, in association with Merv Hughes, ''Merv: the Full Story'' (Australia: HarperCollinsPublishers, 1997)
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hughes, Mervyn
1961 births
Living people
Australia One Day International cricketers
Australia Test cricketers
Essex cricketers
People from Euroa
Test cricket hat-trick takers
Victoria cricketers
Wisden Cricketers of the Year
ACT Comets cricketers
Australia national cricket team selectors
Australian cricketers
Recipients of the Australian Sports Medal
Werribee Football Club players
Cricketers from Victoria (Australia)
Cricketers at the 1992 Cricket World Cup
I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! (Australian TV series) participants
Australian fishers