He conceded 123 runs with only Dilip Vengsarkar’s wicket to show at the Adelaide Oval in 1985. Television expert and commentator Frank Tyson was convinced Hughes had played in his one and only Test but he earned a comeback for the 1986-87 Ashes. Hughes was not universally celebrated even four years and 30 odd wickets later. After yet another delivery of his was pitched down the leg side, against the visiting Sri Lankans at Hobart in 1989, Ian Chappell remarked, “The trouble with Merv Hughes is that he thinks he’s a fast bowler.” Chappell was to clarify (according to Hughes’s biography written by Patrick Keane) that he was not slamming the big pacer’s effort but his inaccuracy. Nevertheless, Hughes had every right to feel hard done by because Chappell’s comment came in the midst of a five-wicket spell, one that bowled Australia to victory at the Bellerive Oval. 

Hughes went on to be one of Australia’s key weapons and played a significant role in the country’s revival in the Allan Border years. In 53 Tests, he claimed 212 wickets, which contributed to three successful Ashes campaigns.

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If the one Test against India in 1985 was nothing worth cherishing, Mohammed Azharuddin’s team encountered a probing paceman in 1991-92; 22 wickets in five Tests. The one top order batsman he didn’t dismiss was Sachin Tendulkar. It was during this series that he told his captain Border that “this little p'''k is going to score more runs than you.” When I interviewed Hughes at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in 2000, he insisted that he didn’t try and sledge Tendulkar while he took hundreds off the Aussies at Sydney and Perth. “I remember saying to myself, ‘Why bother about Sachin.’ He was unflappable and is still the same. You could see then that he is destined for great things.”

Hughes was as tough as they came. He could have gone back to Australia to sort out his bad knee after helping Border’s men clinch the 1993 Ashes by the fourth Test at Leeds, but decided to play on and that probably brought about an end to his career. He lasted only one series after that.

Hughes’s critics reckoned his love for food played a role in his exit from the international fray at 32. Yes, Hughes loved his food…fast food. I remember Greg Chappell telling his audience at a MRF Pace Foundation-organised seminar at Chennai in 2003 how the Australian cricket team were given a presentation by a dietician in the early 1990s. Chappell recalled: “Hughes went back to the room he shared with Shane Warne. He called room service and ordered two hamburgers, two family size Cokes and a big bag of chips. He then turned to his young roomie and said, ‘And what do you want, Warnie?’ ”

Hughes realised that his over-indulgence was hurting him but it seemed he couldn’t help himself. Bob Simpson, whose coaching stint with the Australian team coincided with Hughes’s career, provided an example of the fast bowler’s affinity for food in his book, The Reasons Why. Simpson and physiotherapist Errol Alcott decided to monitor Hughes’s intake closely. One day they found him missing in the Adelaide Oval dressing room. A thorough search by one of the players ended when Hughes was seen in a toilet cubicle with, in Simpson’s words, “the biggest plate of sandwiches you’ve ever seen.” But Hughes didn’t leave anything in the dressing room when he took the field. Simpson credited him for taking all the “hard wickets” during the 1989 Ashes even as Terry Alderman swung Australia to glory. His large frame notwithstanding, he was a quick mover in the outfield and took whatever catches came his way. At training, Simpson said Hughes sweated “his guts out” for as many as 10 high catches in a row. He took them all and was invariably ready for the 11th.

The moustache was a big part of his personality. He told me that it brought him luck. I asked him whether it helped him intimidate batsmen. He agreed but not without adding, “But you can’t do that to good batsmen.” Considering his presence and demeanour, it is not surprising that Hughes got himself involved in a few sledging incidents. There’s a story about Javed Miandad calling him a bus conductor while batting against him in the 1989-90 series Down Under. When Hughes dismissed him, he is believed to have told the feisty Pakistani, “Tickets please?”

His The Oval 1989 exchange with Robin Smith, reproduced in The Wildmen of Cricket by Ken Piesse and Brian Hansen, is amusing as well. Smith’s constant playing and missing caused Hughes to remark (expletives removed): “You can’t bat, Smith.” After the South African-born England batsman hit him for a boundary, Hughes was told: “Well, we make a good pair, don’t we? I can’t bat and you can’t bowl.”  

Hughes was no saint and copped criticism for his boorish behaviour (several instances of abusive utterances to umpires and opposing players), but he was a maverick which had people coming through the turnstiles. If there are characters like him, we don’t see them on the scene. He may not have been everyone’s cup of tea, but who wouldn’t want to buy Australian cricket’s latest Hall of Fame inductee a drink and listen to him speak?

mid-day’s group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance. He tweets @ClaytonMurzello. Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com
The views expressed in this column are the individual’s and don’t represent those of the paper.