Big Merv joins cricket’s greats

MERV Hughes was the ultimate team man during a stellar 53-Test career.

So the cricket icon was “blown away” when told his individual success had earned him a spot alongside the game’s best ever in the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame.

The Australian and Victorian fast bowler became the 56th inductee on Tuesday after a career spanning 53 Tests and 33 oneday internationals for Australia, which firmly entrenched Hughes — and his moustache — in sporting folklore.

“To come in alongside some of the names that are in there is overwhelming and I‘m a little bit emotional,” Hughes said on Tuesday at his beloved MCG, where he used to engage the crowd in Bay 13 like no player before or since.

“Now, 26 years after I finished playing, to still be recognised, it has blown me away. It’s very humbling.”

Fast, fearsome and lionhearted, Hughes took 212 Test wickets including a famous hattrick against the West Indies in Perth, which was spread across three overs, two innings and two different days — and went on to take 8-87 for the match.

“I didn‘t realise I was on a hat-trick,” Hughes said. “To go out and get a wicket — Gordon Greenidge — first ball is a huge feather in your cap.

“I was a little bit excited about that, pumped up about the situation of the game and didn‘t find out for a couple of overs that I’d taken a hat-trick.”

Renowned for his fierce competitiveness, Hughes was a go-to bowler for Test captain Allan Border when he needed something special.

A Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1994, Hughes also represented Victoria, Essex, and the ACT over a first-class career spanning 14 seasons

Hughes’ handlebar moustache became as iconic as the man himself, along with his angled run-up and pumping arms, which were replicated in Australian backyards and on ovals during the late 1980s and early 1990s when Hughes was at his peak.

The affection for Hughes was on show when fielding at fine-leg in front of the fans in the then Bay 13 at the MCG, who would imitate his warm-up stretches en masse.

“There‘s something about the guys in Bay 13; they were probably about my demographic, I reckon,” said Hughes, who was presented with his Hall of Fame trophy at the MCG in front of Bay 13. “I felt very comfortable down here.”

Hughes, now 58, ranked the 1989 Ashes Tour — when part of a squad infamously labelled the “worst ever to tour England” before winning the series 4-0 — as his career highlight.