Graham Dilley
Encyclopedia
Graham Roy Dilley was an English
cricket
er, whose main role was as a fast bowler. He played first-class cricket
for Kent
and Worcestershire
, and appeared in 41 test matches
and 36 ODIs for England. He is perhaps best remembered for his tail-end batting with Ian Botham
in England's second innings at Headingley
in 1981, reaching his Test highest score of 56 in an eighth-wicket partnership of 117 in 80 minutes, which helped England to beat Australia despite following on and being quoted as 500-1 outsiders.
Cricket correspondent Colin Bateman, commenting on his effectiveness, noted, "... when it all worked, it worked beautifully".
, Kent
, England, and attended Dartford High School. He trained as a diamond cutter in Hatton Garden
before embarking on a cricketing career with Kent County Cricket Club
. He played for the Kent Second XI in 1976, aged 17.
He was married and divorced twice. Kent cricket Graham Johnson
was a brother-in-law. He had four children, including Chris Pennell
, captain of Worcester Warriors rugby team.
debut for Kent
at the age of eighteen in 1977, against Cambridge University
. He failed to take a wicket, and was not selected again until the following season. He played second match in June 1978 against the touring Pakistani cricket team
, but again failed to take a wicket. It was only in his third first-class match, against Middlesex
, that he made his presence felt, taking seven wickets in the match to help his team to a six-wicket win
.
Dilley played two more first-class matches that season but took only one wicket, and perhaps more significant was his selection for England Young Cricketers against their West Indian counterparts for two of the three "Tests" and the single one-day
game. Real progress in county cricket
, however, would have to wait for 1979, when Dilley played 31 senior games for Kent, including a useful effort of 4-41 in the World Cup
warm-up match against the New Zealanders
. He finished with 49 first-class wickets at an average
of 23.48 that season, and already his express pace was attracting attention.
selectors, looking for a young fast bowler for that winter's tour of Australia, took the bold decision of including the 20-year-old Dilley in the squad, and he made his international debut in an ODI against West Indies
, played as part of the triangular tournament featuring those two teams and Australia
.
Dilley played his first One Day International match on 24 November 1979 against West Indies at Sydney
during the 1979/80 Benson & Hedges World Series Cup. The match was won by England by two runs. Dilley was given the new ball struck in his third over when he claimed the wicket of Desmond Haynes
. Rain forced the match to have a revised target and the West Indies needed to score 198 runs in 47 overs to win the match. They fell short and lost the match. Dilley finished with 6-2-21-1 with an economy rate of 3.50 runs per over.
A fortnight later, Dilley appeared in his first Test match
, making him the youngest cricketer to play for England in thirty years when he entered the field during the Perth
Test on on 14 December 1979. English captain Mike Brearley
showed confidence in Dilley and gave him the new ball to start not only the Australian innings. Dilley did well during his initial bowling spell, but had to wait until Australia lost their fifth wicket on 127 runs to claim his first Test Wicket. The batsman was Peter Toohey
, caught by Derek Underwood
for 19. Dilley then claimed his second wicket when Rod Marsh
was caught behind by Bob Taylor
. Marsh had scored 42 runs and Australia were 219 for 7 at that point. Australia finished 244 all out, and Dilley took figures of 18-1-47-2 with an economy rate of 2.61. However, his debut bowling performance was over-shadowed by Botham taking 6 for 78.
England were all out for 228, giving a lead of 16 runs to Australia. Dilley scored an unbeaten 38, and stayed at the wicket for 206 minutes, facing 57 balls. His score was the second highest in the innings, after captain Mike Brearley. Dilley again took the new ball in Australia's second innings, but did not get a wicket until Dennis Lillee
gave a catch to Peter Willey
at gully. Lillee scored 19 runs and England needed 354 runs for victory. Geoff Boycott showed resistance with an unbeaten 99, and Dilley made a partnership of nineteen runs with Boycott for eighth wicket. England finished 215 all out, and Australia won the Test by 138 runs.
He acquitted himself reasonably well, taking three wickets and scoring a handy unbeaten 38 in the first innings. The game featured a memorable item on the second-innings scorecard:
England lost the match by 138 runs, and although Dilley also played in the second Test, which was also lost, he was replaced by John Lever
for the third and final game. Dilley took only seven wickets on that tour - "£7,000 for seven wickets" as the tour manager Alec Bedser
commented. The Australians triumphed in this match as well, to win the rubber 3-0, although the Ashes
were not at stake, and were retained by England on the basis of their 5-1 victory in the six-game series that had been played a year earlier.
In 1980, Dilley was not selected until the third Test against West Indies, at Old Trafford
. Rain intervened, as it was to do in the fourth and fifth Tests as well, and all were drawn. Dilley's eleven wickets, in the three innings he was able to make use of, made sure of his place to face the same opponents in the Caribbean
that winter. England were outplayed in the overseas Tests and lost the four-match series 2-0 (the Guyana
Test having been cancelled over the Robin Jackman
affair) and both ODIs, but Dilley's ten wickets were enough for him to retain his place for the 1981 Ashes series.
Dilley began the 1981 Ashes series strongly, taking 12 wickets in the first two Tests, and was thus retained for the third Test at Headingley
. This game is best remembered for England's sensational victory after following on, and for the heroics of Ian Botham
and Bob Willis
, but Dilley played his part as well, albeit in the unfamiliar role of batsman. Coming to the crease in the second innings with England at 135-7, 92 runs in arrears, Dilley had no orders from his captain, Mike Brearley, when he joined Ian Botham at the crease. Botham said, "Right then, let's have a bit of fun", and the two men put on 117 in just 80 minutes before Dilley (56, from 75 balls) was bowled by Terry Alderman
. England eventually established a lead of 130, and Dilley then held a boundary catch to dismiss Rod Marsh in Australia's second innings. Exceptional bowling by Bob Willis (8-43) bowled Australia out for 111, and gave England an unexpected victory by 18 runs.
Despite his part in the win at Headingley, Dilley did not play in the fourth Test, nor in the two that followed, being replaced variously by John Emburey
, Paul Allott
and Mike Hendrick
. He did get picked for the subsequent 1981/2 India tour having pulled out of Graham Gooch's rebel tour
of South Africa, something he regretted for financial reasons.
campaign. Following the tournament, a neck injury forced him out of the game for a year, and although he returned to county cricket in 1985, there was some doubt as to his long-term prospects. A decent performance that winter for Natal helped in his rehabilitation and, by 1986, Dilley took 63 first-class wickets and earned a recall to the England side.
Between 1986 and 1988, Dilley took 83 Test wickets at an average of 26.43, and was generally regarded as England's foremost strike bowler. He developed significant pace and outswing from a long, wide run up, approaching the wicket at an angle almost 45 degrees. Perhaps his most significant success came in 1986/87 when he took 5-68 in the first innings of the first Test at Brisbane to help his team to a victory that set them on their way to an Ashes win, and he also took 20 wickets at 15.85 in ODIs. In the drawn series against New Zealand the following winter he produced his career-best bowling figures, ripping through the Kiwi line-up with 6-38 (including the first five wickets to fall) at Lancaster Park, Christchurch
. He was fined £250 in the same match for swearing at the umpire, comments which were clearly picked up by the stump microphone. He took a further 5-60 in Auckland, and finished the series with fifteen wickets at an average of 14.
a topic of discussion. It is believed that he tried to adopt the Jeff Thomson
's slingy bowling style, and later Dilley's style was used by Chris Cairns in New Zealand.
In 1988, when talking about the effects of coaching fast bowlers, Geoffrey Boycott commented, "Remember what happened to Graham Dilley, who started out as a genuinely quick bowler. They started stuffing line and length
in his ear and now he has Dennis Lillee
's action with Denis Thatcher
's pace".
, and his new county were about to begin the most successful period in their history, winning four trophies in the next three years. Despite further injury problems, he proved a vital cog in the wheel as Worcestershire won the 1988 and 1989 County Championship
s; it was during this period that he wrote, with team-mate Graeme Hick
, an account of one of the title-winning seasons, somewhat painfully entitled Hick'n'Dilley Circus.
Dilley's Test career was beginning to wind down by this time, and his final match was at Edgbaston
in the 1989 Ashes series. He made certain that he would not be picked again by accompanying Mike Gatting
on the rebel tour
to South Africa that winter, although he continued to play for his county for a couple more years. Dilley appeared in three of Worcestershire's matches in April 1992, but despite a couple of appearances in the Second XI, he announced his retirement at the end of that season because of recurring injury problems.
In the Reliance ICC Test Player Bowling Rankings, he was:
and Scotland
. His last position was as head coach to Loughborough UCCE
, where he was director of cricket for 11 years. where he coached, among others, Monty Panesar
, James Anyon
, Ruel Brathwaite
, James Adams
and Rob Taylor
.
captain, Chris Pennell
.
Dilley died in a hospice in Leicester on 5 October 2011 just one week after being diagnosed with oesophageal cancer
, at the age of 52. A memorial service was held in Worcester Cathedral
on Wednesday 9 November 2011.
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
er, whose main role was as a fast bowler. He played first-class cricket
First-class cricket
First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...
for Kent
Kent County Cricket Club
Kent County Cricket Club is one of the 18 first class county county cricket clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the county of Kent...
and Worcestershire
Worcestershire County Cricket Club
Worcestershire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Worcestershire...
, and appeared in 41 test matches
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
and 36 ODIs for England. He is perhaps best remembered for his tail-end batting with Ian Botham
Ian Botham
Sir Ian Terence Botham OBE is a former England Test cricketer and Test team captain, and current cricket commentator. He was a genuine all-rounder with 14 centuries and 383 wickets in Test cricket, and remains well-known by his nickname "Beefy"...
in England's second innings at Headingley
Headingley
Headingley is a suburb of Leeds in West Yorkshire, England. It is approximately two miles out of the city centre, to the north west along the A660 road...
in 1981, reaching his Test highest score of 56 in an eighth-wicket partnership of 117 in 80 minutes, which helped England to beat Australia despite following on and being quoted as 500-1 outsiders.
Cricket correspondent Colin Bateman, commenting on his effectiveness, noted, "... when it all worked, it worked beautifully".
Life and career
Dilley was born and raised in DartfordDartford
Dartford is the principal town in the borough of Dartford. It is situated in the northwest corner of Kent, England, east south-east of central London....
, Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, England, and attended Dartford High School. He trained as a diamond cutter in Hatton Garden
Hatton Garden
Hatton Garden is a street and area near Holborn in London, England. It is most famous for being London’s jewellery quarter and centre of the UK diamond trade, but the area is also now home to a diverse range of media and creative businesses....
before embarking on a cricketing career with Kent County Cricket Club
Kent County Cricket Club
Kent County Cricket Club is one of the 18 first class county county cricket clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the county of Kent...
. He played for the Kent Second XI in 1976, aged 17.
He was married and divorced twice. Kent cricket Graham Johnson
Graham Johnson (cricketer)
Graham William Johnson was a cricketer with Kent.He made his debut in 1965 and won his county cap in 1970. He was an opening batsman and off spin bowler.Graham attended the London School of Economics....
was a brother-in-law. He had four children, including Chris Pennell
Chris Pennell
Chris Pennell is an English rugby union player. He currently plays for Worcester Warriors in the Aviva Premiership. He plays as a fullback....
, captain of Worcester Warriors rugby team.
Early career
Dilley made his first classFirst-class cricket
First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...
debut for Kent
Kent County Cricket Club
Kent County Cricket Club is one of the 18 first class county county cricket clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the county of Kent...
at the age of eighteen in 1977, against Cambridge University
Cambridge University Cricket Club
Cambridge University Cricket Club is a first-class cricket team. It now plays all but one of its first-class cricket matches as part of the Cambridge University Centre of Cricketing Excellence , which includes Anglia Ruskin University...
. He failed to take a wicket, and was not selected again until the following season. He played second match in June 1978 against the touring Pakistani cricket team
Pakistani cricket team
The Pakistan cricket team is the national cricket team of Pakistan. Pakistan, represented by the Pakistan Cricket Board , is a full member of the International Cricket Council, and thus participates in , and cricket matches....
, but again failed to take a wicket. It was only in his third first-class match, against Middlesex
Middlesex County Cricket Club
Middlesex County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Middlesex. It was announced in February 2009 that Middlesex changed their limited overs name from the Middlesex Crusaders, to the...
, that he made his presence felt, taking seven wickets in the match to help his team to a six-wicket win
The result in cricket
The result in a game of cricket may be a win for one of the two teams playing, a draw or a tie. In the case of a limited overs game, the game can also end with no result...
.
Dilley played two more first-class matches that season but took only one wicket, and perhaps more significant was his selection for England Young Cricketers against their West Indian counterparts for two of the three "Tests" and the single one-day
One-day cricket
Limited overs cricket, also known as one-day cricket and in a slightly different context as List A cricket, is a version of the sport of cricket in which a match is generally completed in one day, whereas Test and first-class matches can take up to five days to complete...
game. Real progress in county cricket
County cricket
County cricket is the highest level of domestic cricket in England and Wales. For the 2010 season, see 2010 English cricket season.-First-class counties:...
, however, would have to wait for 1979, when Dilley played 31 senior games for Kent, including a useful effort of 4-41 in the World Cup
1979 Cricket World Cup
The 1979 Cricket World Cup was the second edition of the tournament and was won by the West Indies. It was held from June 9 to June 23, 1979 in England. The format had remained unchanged from 1975. Eight countries participated in the event. The preliminary matches were played in 2 groups of 4...
warm-up match against the New Zealanders
New Zealand cricket team
The New Zealand cricket team, nicknamed the Black Caps, are the national cricket team representing New Zealand. They played their first in 1930 against England in Christchurch, New Zealand, becoming the fifth country to play Test cricket. It took the team until 1955–56 to win a Test, against the...
. He finished with 49 first-class wickets at an average
Bowling average
Bowling average is a statistic measuring the performance of bowlers in the sport of cricket.A bowler's bowling average is defined as the total number of runs conceded by the bowlers divided by the number of wickets taken by the bowler, so the lower the average the better. It is similar to earned...
of 23.48 that season, and already his express pace was attracting attention.
England selection
The EnglandEnglish cricket team
The England and Wales cricket team is a cricket team which represents England and Wales. Until 1992 it also represented Scotland. Since 1 January 1997 it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board , having been previously governed by Marylebone Cricket Club from 1903 until the end...
selectors, looking for a young fast bowler for that winter's tour of Australia, took the bold decision of including the 20-year-old Dilley in the squad, and he made his international debut in an ODI against West Indies
West Indian cricket team
The West Indian cricket team, also known colloquially as the West Indies or the Windies, is a multi-national cricket team representing a sporting confederation of 15 mainly English-speaking Caribbean countries, British dependencies and non-British dependencies.From the mid 1970s to the early 1990s,...
, played as part of the triangular tournament featuring those two teams and Australia
Australian cricket team
The Australian cricket team is the national cricket team of Australia. It is the joint oldest team in Test cricket, having played in the first Test match in 1877...
.
Dilley played his first One Day International match on 24 November 1979 against West Indies at Sydney
Sydney Cricket Ground
The Sydney Cricket Ground is a sports stadium in Sydney in Australia. It is used for Australian football, Test cricket, One Day International cricket, some rugby league and rugby union matches and is the home ground for the New South Wales Blues cricket team and the Sydney Swans of the Australian...
during the 1979/80 Benson & Hedges World Series Cup. The match was won by England by two runs. Dilley was given the new ball struck in his third over when he claimed the wicket of Desmond Haynes
Desmond Haynes
Desmond Leo Haynes is a West Indian cricketer and cricket coach. He was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1991. Haynes formed a formidable partnership with Gordon Greenidge for the West Indies cricket team in Test cricket during 1980s. Between them they managed 16 century stands, four in excess of...
. Rain forced the match to have a revised target and the West Indies needed to score 198 runs in 47 overs to win the match. They fell short and lost the match. Dilley finished with 6-2-21-1 with an economy rate of 3.50 runs per over.
A fortnight later, Dilley appeared in his first Test match
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
, making him the youngest cricketer to play for England in thirty years when he entered the field during the Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
Test on on 14 December 1979. English captain Mike Brearley
Mike Brearley
John Michael Brearley OBE is a former cricketer who captained the England cricket team in 31 of his 39 Test matches, winning 17 and losing only 4. He was the President of the Marylebone Cricket Club in 2007–08.-Early life:...
showed confidence in Dilley and gave him the new ball to start not only the Australian innings. Dilley did well during his initial bowling spell, but had to wait until Australia lost their fifth wicket on 127 runs to claim his first Test Wicket. The batsman was Peter Toohey
Peter Toohey
Peter Michael Toohey is a former Australian cricketer who played in 15 Tests and 5 ODIs from 1977 to 1979....
, caught by Derek Underwood
Derek Underwood
Derek Underwood MBE is an English former international cricketer, and a former President of the MCC....
for 19. Dilley then claimed his second wicket when Rod Marsh
Rod Marsh
Rodney William Marsh MBE is a former Australian wicketkeeper.A colourful character, Marsh had a Test career spanning from the 1970–71 to the 1983–84 Australian season. In 96 Tests, he set a world record of 355 wicketkeeping dismissals, the same number his pace bowling Western...
was caught behind by Bob Taylor
Bob Taylor (cricketer)
Robert William Taylor , known as Bob Taylor, is a former English cricketer who played as wicket-keeper for Derbyshire between 1961 and 1984 and for England between 1971 and 1984. He made 57 Test, and 639 first class cricket appearances in total, taking 1,473 catches. The 2,069 victims across his...
. Marsh had scored 42 runs and Australia were 219 for 7 at that point. Australia finished 244 all out, and Dilley took figures of 18-1-47-2 with an economy rate of 2.61. However, his debut bowling performance was over-shadowed by Botham taking 6 for 78.
England were all out for 228, giving a lead of 16 runs to Australia. Dilley scored an unbeaten 38, and stayed at the wicket for 206 minutes, facing 57 balls. His score was the second highest in the innings, after captain Mike Brearley. Dilley again took the new ball in Australia's second innings, but did not get a wicket until Dennis Lillee
Dennis Lillee
Dennis Keith Lillee, AM, MBE is a former Australian cricketer rated as the "outstanding fast bowler of his generation"...
gave a catch to Peter Willey
Peter Willey
Peter Willey is a former English cricketer, who played as a right-handed batsman and right-arm offbreak bowler. In and out of the England team, he interrupted his international career for three years by taking part in the first of the England players' South African rebel tours in 1982...
at gully. Lillee scored 19 runs and England needed 354 runs for victory. Geoff Boycott showed resistance with an unbeaten 99, and Dilley made a partnership of nineteen runs with Boycott for eighth wicket. England finished 215 all out, and Australia won the Test by 138 runs.
He acquitted himself reasonably well, taking three wickets and scoring a handy unbeaten 38 in the first innings. The game featured a memorable item on the second-innings scorecard:
- Lillee c Willey bBowledBowled is a method of dismissing a batsman in the sport of cricket. This method of dismissal is covered by Law 30 of the Laws of cricket.A batsman is out bowled if his wicket is put down by a ball delivered by the bowler...
Dilley 19
England lost the match by 138 runs, and although Dilley also played in the second Test, which was also lost, he was replaced by John Lever
John Lever
John Lever MBE is an English former cricketer, who played in twenty one Tests and twenty two ODIs for England from 1976 to 1986...
for the third and final game. Dilley took only seven wickets on that tour - "£7,000 for seven wickets" as the tour manager Alec Bedser
Alec Bedser
Sir Alec Victor Bedser, CBE was a professional English cricketer. He was the chairman of selectors for the English national cricket team, and the president of Surrey County Cricket Club...
commented. The Australians triumphed in this match as well, to win the rubber 3-0, although the Ashes
The Ashes
The Ashes is a Test cricket series played between England and Australia. It is one of the most celebrated rivalries in international cricket and dates back to 1882. It is currently played biennially, alternately in the United Kingdom and Australia. Cricket being a summer sport, and the venues...
were not at stake, and were retained by England on the basis of their 5-1 victory in the six-game series that had been played a year earlier.
In 1980, Dilley was not selected until the third Test against West Indies, at Old Trafford
Old Trafford (cricket)
Old Trafford is a cricket ground situated on Talbot Road in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester. It has been the home of Lancashire County Cricket Club since its foundation in 1864, having been the ground of Manchester Cricket Club from 1857...
. Rain intervened, as it was to do in the fourth and fifth Tests as well, and all were drawn. Dilley's eleven wickets, in the three innings he was able to make use of, made sure of his place to face the same opponents in the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
that winter. England were outplayed in the overseas Tests and lost the four-match series 2-0 (the Guyana
Guyana
Guyana , officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, previously the colony of British Guiana, is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana was a former colony of the Dutch and of the British...
Test having been cancelled over the Robin Jackman
Robin Jackman
Robin Jackman is a former English cricketer, who played in four Tests and fifteen ODIs for England from 1974 to 1983. He was a seam bowler and useful tail-end batsman. During a first-class career lasting from 1966 to 1982, he took 1,402 wickets...
affair) and both ODIs, but Dilley's ten wickets were enough for him to retain his place for the 1981 Ashes series.
Dilley began the 1981 Ashes series strongly, taking 12 wickets in the first two Tests, and was thus retained for the third Test at Headingley
Headingley Stadium
Headingley Stadium is a sporting complex in the Leeds suburb of Headingley in West Yorkshire, England. It is the home of Yorkshire County Cricket Club, rugby league team Leeds Rhinos and rugby union team Leeds Carnegie ....
. This game is best remembered for England's sensational victory after following on, and for the heroics of Ian Botham
Ian Botham
Sir Ian Terence Botham OBE is a former England Test cricketer and Test team captain, and current cricket commentator. He was a genuine all-rounder with 14 centuries and 383 wickets in Test cricket, and remains well-known by his nickname "Beefy"...
and Bob Willis
Bob Willis
Robert George Dylan Willis MBE , known as Bob Willis, is a former English cricketer who played for Surrey, Warwickshire, Northern Transvaal and England...
, but Dilley played his part as well, albeit in the unfamiliar role of batsman. Coming to the crease in the second innings with England at 135-7, 92 runs in arrears, Dilley had no orders from his captain, Mike Brearley, when he joined Ian Botham at the crease. Botham said, "Right then, let's have a bit of fun", and the two men put on 117 in just 80 minutes before Dilley (56, from 75 balls) was bowled by Terry Alderman
Terry Alderman
Terence Michael Alderman is a former Australian cricketer.He began his first-class career in 1974 with Western Australia in the Sheffield Shield and came to international prominence when he was chosen for the Australian national team to tour England in 1981...
. England eventually established a lead of 130, and Dilley then held a boundary catch to dismiss Rod Marsh in Australia's second innings. Exceptional bowling by Bob Willis (8-43) bowled Australia out for 111, and gave England an unexpected victory by 18 runs.
Despite his part in the win at Headingley, Dilley did not play in the fourth Test, nor in the two that followed, being replaced variously by John Emburey
John Emburey
John Ernest Emburey is a former English cricketer, who played for Middlesex, Northamptonshire, Western Province, Berkshire and England....
, Paul Allott
Paul Allott
Paul John Walter Allott is a former English cricketer who played county cricket for Lancashire, Minor Counties cricket for Staffordshire and first-class cricket in New Zealand for Wellington, as well as thirteen Test match appearances and thirteen One Day International appearances for England.He...
and Mike Hendrick
Mike Hendrick
Michael Hendrick is a former English cricketer, who played in thirty Tests and twenty two ODIs for England from 1973 to 1981...
. He did get picked for the subsequent 1981/2 India tour having pulled out of Graham Gooch's rebel tour
South African rebel tours
The South African rebel tours were a series of seven cricket tours staged between 1982 and 1990. They were known as the rebel tours because South Africa was throughout this period banned from international cricket due to the apartheid regime...
of South Africa, something he regretted for financial reasons.
Injury and recovery
Despite being in and out of the side for the next couple of years, Dilley's future as a Test player seemed reasonably bright by 1983 as he played a full part in England's World CupCricket World Cup
The ICC Cricket World Cup is the premier international championship of men's One Day International cricket. The event is organised by the sport's governing body, the International Cricket Council , with preliminary qualification rounds leading up to a finals tournament which is held every four years...
campaign. Following the tournament, a neck injury forced him out of the game for a year, and although he returned to county cricket in 1985, there was some doubt as to his long-term prospects. A decent performance that winter for Natal helped in his rehabilitation and, by 1986, Dilley took 63 first-class wickets and earned a recall to the England side.
Between 1986 and 1988, Dilley took 83 Test wickets at an average of 26.43, and was generally regarded as England's foremost strike bowler. He developed significant pace and outswing from a long, wide run up, approaching the wicket at an angle almost 45 degrees. Perhaps his most significant success came in 1986/87 when he took 5-68 in the first innings of the first Test at Brisbane to help his team to a victory that set them on their way to an Ashes win, and he also took 20 wickets at 15.85 in ODIs. In the drawn series against New Zealand the following winter he produced his career-best bowling figures, ripping through the Kiwi line-up with 6-38 (including the first five wickets to fall) at Lancaster Park, Christchurch
Christchurch
Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area after Auckland. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of...
. He was fined £250 in the same match for swearing at the umpire, comments which were clearly picked up by the stump microphone. He took a further 5-60 in Auckland, and finished the series with fifteen wickets at an average of 14.
Bowling style
His bowling style often fascinated many, with his unusual run-upRun-up (cricket)
The term "run-up" is a cricketing term which refers to the approach a bowler makes when preparing to deliver the ball. The ball must be delivered from behind a bowling crease, but preparation to bowl the ball can be done any way the bowler wishes...
a topic of discussion. It is believed that he tried to adopt the Jeff Thomson
Jeff Thomson
Jeffrey Robert Thomson is a former Australian cricketer. Known as "Thommo", he was one of the fastest bowlers ever to play Test cricket and was the opening partner of fellow fast bowler Dennis Lillee; their combination was one of the most fearsome in Test cricket history...
's slingy bowling style, and later Dilley's style was used by Chris Cairns in New Zealand.
In 1988, when talking about the effects of coaching fast bowlers, Geoffrey Boycott commented, "Remember what happened to Graham Dilley, who started out as a genuinely quick bowler. They started stuffing line and length
Line and length
Line and length in cricket refers to the direction and point of bouncing on the pitch of a delivery. The two concepts are frequently discussed together.-Line:...
in his ear and now he has Dennis Lillee
Dennis Lillee
Dennis Keith Lillee, AM, MBE is a former Australian cricketer rated as the "outstanding fast bowler of his generation"...
's action with Denis Thatcher
Denis Thatcher
Major Sir Denis Thatcher, 1st Baronet, MBE, TD was a British businessman, and the husband of the former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. He was born in Lewisham, London, the elder child of a New Zealand-born British businessman, Thomas Herbert Thatcher, and his wife Kathleen, née Bird...
's pace".
Later career
For the 1987 season, Dilley moved to WorcestershireWorcestershire County Cricket Club
Worcestershire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Worcestershire...
, and his new county were about to begin the most successful period in their history, winning four trophies in the next three years. Despite further injury problems, he proved a vital cog in the wheel as Worcestershire won the 1988 and 1989 County Championship
County Championship
The County Championship is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales...
s; it was during this period that he wrote, with team-mate Graeme Hick
Graeme Hick
Graeme Ashley Hick MBE is a Zimbabwean-born cricketer who played 65 Test matches and 120 One Day Internationals for England. He played county cricket for Worcestershire for his entire English domestic career, a period of well over twenty years, and in 2008 he surpassed Graham Gooch's record for...
, an account of one of the title-winning seasons, somewhat painfully entitled Hick'n'Dilley Circus.
Dilley's Test career was beginning to wind down by this time, and his final match was at Edgbaston
Edgbaston Cricket Ground
Edgbaston Cricket Ground, also known as the County Ground or Edgbaston Stadium, is a cricket ground in the Edgbaston area of Birmingham, England...
in the 1989 Ashes series. He made certain that he would not be picked again by accompanying Mike Gatting
Mike Gatting
Michael "Mike" William Gatting OBE is a former English cricketer, who played first-class cricket for Middlesex and for England from 1977 to 1995, captaining the national side in twenty-three Test matches between 1986 and 1988...
on the rebel tour
South African rebel tours
The South African rebel tours were a series of seven cricket tours staged between 1982 and 1990. They were known as the rebel tours because South Africa was throughout this period banned from international cricket due to the apartheid regime...
to South Africa that winter, although he continued to play for his county for a couple more years. Dilley appeared in three of Worcestershire's matches in April 1992, but despite a couple of appearances in the Second XI, he announced his retirement at the end of that season because of recurring injury problems.
In the Reliance ICC Test Player Bowling Rankings, he was:
- Highest Bowling Rating - 692 on 30 June 1988 (v West Indies, Old Trafford, 3rd Test)
- Highest Bowling Ranking - 4th on 16 June 1988 (v West Indies, Lord's, 2nd Test)
Retirement
Dilley's move to Worcestershire denied him the financial security of a benefit season. He found employment after retirement as a coach, firstly to the England women's cricket team, and then accompanying the men's side on the tour to India in 2001/02. He also worked in a coaching capacity for ZimbabweZimbabwean cricket team
The Zimbabwean cricket team is a national cricket team representing Zimbabwe. It is administrated by Zimbabwe Cricket...
and Scotland
Scottish cricket team
The Scotland national cricket team represents Scotland in the game of cricket. They compete in the Clydesdale Bank 40 as the Scottish Saltires...
. His last position was as head coach to Loughborough UCCE
Loughborough University Centre of Cricketing Excellence
Loughborough MCC University is a cricket coaching centre based at Loughborough University in Loughborough, Leicestershire, England and the name under which the university's cricket team plays.- About :The coaching centre is largely funded by the Marylebone Cricket Club...
, where he was director of cricket for 11 years. where he coached, among others, Monty Panesar
Monty Panesar
Mudhsuden Singh Panesar, known as Monty Panesar , is an English cricketer who currently plays for Sussex. A left-arm spinner, Panesar played Test and one-day cricket for England until 2009. In English county cricket he played for Northamptonshire until 2009...
, James Anyon
James Anyon
James Edward Anyon is a cricketer who currently plays for Sussex.He was educated in Lancashire before going to Loughborough University where Warwickshire spotted him playing for the University...
, Ruel Brathwaite
Ruel Brathwaite
Ruel Marlon Ricardo Brathwaite is a Barbadian cricketer. Brathwaite is a right-handed batsman who bowls right-arm fast-medium. He was born in Bridgetown, Barbados....
, James Adams
James Adams (cricketer)
James 'Jimmy' Henry Kenneth Adams is an English cricketer. He is a left-handed batsman and a left-arm medium-pace bowler....
and Rob Taylor
Rob Taylor
Robert Earl Taylor is a former NFL offensive tackle who played eight seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He was selected by the Philadelphia Eagles in the twelfth round of the 1982 NFL Draft.-References:...
.
Personal life
Dilley was the father of the Worcester Warriors rugby unionRugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
captain, Chris Pennell
Chris Pennell
Chris Pennell is an English rugby union player. He currently plays for Worcester Warriors in the Aviva Premiership. He plays as a fullback....
.
Dilley died in a hospice in Leicester on 5 October 2011 just one week after being diagnosed with oesophageal cancer
Esophageal cancer
Esophageal cancer is malignancy of the esophagus. There are various subtypes, primarily squamous cell cancer and adenocarcinoma . Squamous cell cancer arises from the cells that line the upper part of the esophagus...
, at the age of 52. A memorial service was held in Worcester Cathedral
Worcester Cathedral
Worcester Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in Worcester, England; situated on a bank overlooking the River Severn. It is the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Worcester. Its official name is The Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Mary the Virgin of Worcester...
on Wednesday 9 November 2011.
English county
- KentKent County Cricket ClubKent County Cricket Club is one of the 18 first class county county cricket clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the county of Kent...
- WorcestershireWorcestershire County Cricket ClubWorcestershire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Worcestershire...
Tests
- Test debut: vs AustraliaAustralian cricket teamThe Australian cricket team is the national cricket team of Australia. It is the joint oldest team in Test cricket, having played in the first Test match in 1877...
, PerthPerth, Western AustraliaPerth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
, 1979/80 - Last Test: vs Australia, BirminghamBirminghamBirmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
, 1989- Highest score: 56 vs Australia, LeedsLeedsLeeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
, 1981 - Best bowling: 6-38 vs New ZealandNew Zealand cricket teamThe New Zealand cricket team, nicknamed the Black Caps, are the national cricket team representing New Zealand. They played their first in 1930 against England in Christchurch, New Zealand, becoming the fifth country to play Test cricket. It took the team until 1955–56 to win a Test, against the...
, ChristchurchChristchurchChristchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area after Auckland. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of...
, 1987/88
- Highest score: 56 vs Australia, Leeds
One Day International
- ODI debut: vs West IndiesWest Indian cricket teamThe West Indian cricket team, also known colloquially as the West Indies or the Windies, is a multi-national cricket team representing a sporting confederation of 15 mainly English-speaking Caribbean countries, British dependencies and non-British dependencies.From the mid 1970s to the early 1990s,...
, SydneySydneySydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, 1979/80 - Last ODI: vs West Indies, Leeds, 1988
- Highest score: 31* vs New Zealand, The OvalThe OvalThe Kia Oval, still commonly referred to by its original name of The Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, in the London Borough of Lambeth. In the past it was also sometimes called the Kennington Oval...
, 1983 - Best bowling: 4-23 vs West Indies, BrisbaneBrisbaneBrisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
, 1986/87
- Highest score: 31* vs New Zealand, The Oval
First-class
- First-class debut: KentKent County Cricket ClubKent County Cricket Club is one of the 18 first class county county cricket clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the county of Kent...
vs Cambridge UniversityCambridge University Cricket ClubCambridge University Cricket Club is a first-class cricket team. It now plays all but one of its first-class cricket matches as part of the Cambridge University Centre of Cricketing Excellence , which includes Anglia Ruskin University...
, CanterburyCanterburyCanterbury is a historic English cathedral city, which lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a district of Kent in South East England. It lies on the River Stour....
, 1977 - Last first-class match: WorcestershireWorcestershire County Cricket ClubWorcestershire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Worcestershire...
vs NorthamptonshireNorthamptonshire County Cricket ClubNorthamptonshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Northamptonshire. Its limited overs team is called the Northants Steelbacks. The traditional club colour is Maroon. During the...
, WorcesterWorcesterThe City of Worcester, commonly known as Worcester, , is a city and county town of Worcestershire in the West Midlands of England. Worcester is situated some southwest of Birmingham and north of Gloucester, and has an approximate population of 94,000 people. The River Severn runs through the...
, 1992- Highest score: 81 for Kent vs Northamptonshire, NorthamptonNorthamptonNorthampton is a large market town and local government district in the East Midlands region of England. Situated about north-west of London and around south-east of Birmingham, Northampton lies on the River Nene and is the county town of Northamptonshire. The demonym of Northampton is...
, 1979 - Best bowling: 7-63 for Natal vs TransvaalTransvaal ProvinceTransvaal Province was a province of the Union of South Africa from 1910 to 1961, and of its successor, the Republic of South Africa, from 1961 until the end of apartheid in 1994 when a new constitution subdivided it.-History:...
, JohannesburgJohannesburgJohannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
, 1985/86
- Highest score: 81 for Kent vs Northamptonshire, Northampton
List A cricket
- List A debut: Kent vs SurreySurrey County Cricket ClubSurrey County Cricket Club is one of the 18 professional county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Surrey. Its limited overs team is called the Surrey Lions...
, The OvalThe OvalThe Kia Oval, still commonly referred to by its original name of The Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, in the London Borough of Lambeth. In the past it was also sometimes called the Kennington Oval...
, 1978 - Last List A match: Worcestershire vs DerbyshireDerbyshire County Cricket ClubDerbyshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the England and Wales domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Derbyshire...
, Worcester, 1992- Highest score: 37* for Kent vs HampshireHampshire County Cricket ClubHampshire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Hampshire in cricket's County Championship. The club was founded in 1863 as a successor to the Hampshire county cricket teams and has played at the Antelope Ground from then until 1885, before moving to the County Ground where it...
, CanterburyCanterburyCanterbury is a historic English cathedral city, which lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a district of Kent in South East England. It lies on the River Stour....
, 1983 - Best bowling: 5-29 (twice):
- for Kent vs ScotlandScottish cricket teamThe Scotland national cricket team represents Scotland in the game of cricket. They compete in the Clydesdale Bank 40 as the Scottish Saltires...
, EdinburghEdinburghEdinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
, 1986 - for Worcestershire vs MiddlesexMiddlesex County Cricket ClubMiddlesex County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Middlesex. It was announced in February 2009 that Middlesex changed their limited overs name from the Middlesex Crusaders, to the...
, Lord's, 1988 (NatWest Trophy final)
- for Kent vs Scotland
- Highest score: 37* for Kent vs Hampshire
External links
- Graham Dilley: Sultan of swing and Ashes hero Daily Telegraph profile of Dilley by former England team mate Derek PringleDerek PringleDerek Raymond Pringle is an English former Test and ODI cricketer for England, and is now a cricket journalist.He was educated at Felsted School and Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge University.-Life and career:...