Mervyn Gregory Hughes is a former Australian cricketer. A right-arm fast bowler, he represented Australia in 53 Test matches between 1985 and 1994, taking 212 wickets. Merv Hughes was a big-hearted fast bowler who ultimately made a major contribution to Australia's fortunes. A crowd favourite, he was a lively character armed with an imposing run-up and delivery action, a classic fast bowlers' glare down the pitch, a mischievous sense of humour and a moustache of incredible proportions. And while his antics sometimes overshadowed his bowling, Hughes gave every ounce of effort to his country, and helped it to re-climb the ranks of Test cricket.

Hughes was born in Euroa, Victoria. 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." Hughes started his career playing district cricket 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. Hughes also played Australian rules football during the winter in the late 1970s and early 1980s; at his peak, he was a key position player for the Werribee Football Club in the Victorian Football Association first division.

Hughes debuted in at Adelaide in December 1985 – a time of transition for the Australian side, during a time when the rebel tour to South Africa saw Australia lose eighteen of their more experienced players. The rebel tour opened opportunities for some of the younger players to play Test cricket that may not have been ready yet during a“rebuilding” phase for for Australia led by captain Allan Border. The transition the Australian team Hughes played in was perhaps best demonstrated in Australia’s win against the West Indies in Antigua in 1991.

Hughes first appeared for Australia against India in 1985/86. He took 1–123 and was not re-selected until the Ashes series against England the following year. The self-doubt started almost immediately after he was handed his Test debut – having played just 22 Shield games for Victoria. Between his debut and the start of that memorable 1988/89 season, Hughes was a regular member of Australian touring parties but yo-yoed in and out of the starting XI, playing only six of 22 Tests. In the 1986/87 Ashes, he played the first Test, missed the second, and then played the last three. The following season, he played the first Test and the last, but missed the three in between. Even at the beginning of the 'Summer of Merv', Hughes wasn't considered good enough to start the series and only won his spot back – amidst plenty of criticism – after Australia were thrashed by nine wickets in the first Test at the Gabba.

The 1988/89 summer of cricket, the last in a horror decade for the sport in Australia, followed an all-to-familiar script. The mighty West Indies extended their decade-long hold on the Frank Worrell Trophy and also won the annual one-day tri-series, and the shock World Cup win of Allan Border's young team just a year earlier seemed more and more like an aberration than a promise of a new dawn. But the summer also had an exciting footnote thanks to the emergence of an unheralded Victorian fast bowler, who Australia's dispirited supporters clung onto as a beacon of excitement and fun, if not of cricketing prowess.

Hughes had been in and out of the Australian side for the previous three years, but made a name for himself that summer when he ripped apart the famed Windies' batting line-up with 13 wickets from more than 73 tireless overs in the second Test in Perth. His career-best haul included the most unusual of hat-tricks, spread across three overs and two days, the first by an Australian bowler in three decades. He had Curtly Ambrose 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 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. That Hughes performance came partly as an act of vengeance after his pace partner, Geoff Lawson, had had his jaw shattered by a nasty Curtly Ambrose bouncer only endeared him further to a public crying out for a hero.

Picked for his first Ashes tour at the end of that summer, Hughes again viewed himself as a support bowler, firmly behind the likes of Terry Alderman, Geoff Lawson and Carl Rackemann in the pace pecking order. And when the latter was unable to start the series due to injury, he considered himself fortunate to win a spot in the XI for the opening Test. With his waddle to the crease and portly physique, Hughes quickly became an easy target for the merciless English crowds, who would taunt him with chants of 'Sumo! Sumo!' during his two series in the Old Dart. But as Australia's domination of that 1989 campaign played out and Hughes held his own – he would finish the series with 19 wickets to complement Alderman's 41 and Lawson's 29 – selectors saw no reason to change a winning side.

From the start of that '89 Ashes tour until the end of the next one four years later, Hughes missed only five of Australia's 45 Tests, taking 173 wickets at an average of 26. No one in Test cricket during that time – not Ambrose, nor Waqar Younis or Wasim Akram – took more wickets than Hughes. His status as a fan favourite had been rubber stamped in that '88/89 summer, but this was the arrival of Merv Hughes as one of the best fast bowlers in the world.

And as the wickets fell, the personality of Merv continued to grow and began to transcend the sport. Tales of drinking and eating to excess became the stuff of legend and his reputation as one of the game's funniest and nastiest sledgers continues to this day. He was all bristle and bullshit and opponents couldn't make out what he was saying, except that every sledge ended with 'arsewipe'. To Australians, Hughes was the ultimate Aussie larrikin, whose big moustache and big personality endeared him to a public who want their sporting heroes to be just as they view themselves – likeable but without a hint of ego.

Almost overnight, what had been viewed as Hughes' limitations as a cricketer became loveable traits. His lengthy, angling run-up and unusual gait – English writer Alan Ross would label it "rather as if a lobster was nipping at his ankles" – became part of the Hughes package, and when he famously thrilled the MCG crowd with his warm-up routine in front of Bay 13 later that summer, those in the outer grew to love him even more. A footy-loving, beer-drinking, working-class boy from Melbourne's western suburbs, Hughes was quintessentially Australian, a prankster who could ram his tongue into the ear of his captain and somehow get away with it.

By the time Hughes and the Australians returned to the UK in 1993, the expectation on him as a key player only intensified when, like that famous Perth Test against the Windies, a fellow pace soldier went down. When McDermott doubled over in agony in the Lord's dressing-room on the opening day of the second Test, a twisted bowel ending the Queenslander's campaign and landing him in hospital, the responsibility to lead an inexperienced Australian attack fell squarely on Hughes' shoulders.

Once again, he did what was required of him, bowling 296.2 overs, the third most ever by an Australian paceman in an Ashes campaign in England, and taking 31 wickets as the Aussies retained the urn with two Tests to play. And he did so despite the pain of an injured right knee that had yet to fully recover from off-season surgery and required ongoing specialist treatment during the four-month tour. And yet, even after Hughes had taken 65 wickets across three triumphant Ashes campaigns in four years and risen to number three in the ICC Test bowling rankings, there remained an underlying sense in England that the man with the big mo and the big belly was still more pantomime villain than world-class cricketer.

He will probably be remembered for his image rather than his 200-plus Test wickets. However, it would be an injustice if, within that image, he is underrated as an international cricketer or as a figure of huge importance to Australia. Hughes played his last Test in Cape Town against South Africa in 1994.

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. 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.