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| Full name | Graham Roy Dilley | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1959-05-18)18 May 1959 Dartford,Kent, England | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 5 October 2011(2011-10-05) (aged 52) Leicester, England | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nickname | Dill, Picca | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Batting | Left-handed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bowling | Right armfast | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Role | Bowler | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| International information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| National side | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Test debut (cap 483) | 14 December 1979 v Australia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Last Test | 11 July 1989 v Australia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ODI debut (cap 51) | 28 November 1979 v West Indies | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Last ODI | 21 May 1988 v West Indies | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Domestic team information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1977–1986 | Kent | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1985/86 | Natal | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1987–1992 | Worcestershire | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Career statistics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Source:Cricinfo,17 November 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Graham Roy Dilley (18 May 1959 – 5 October 2011)[1][2] was an English internationalcricketer, whose main role was as afast bowler. He playedfirst-class cricket forKent County Cricket Club andWorcestershire County Cricket Clubs, and appeared in 41Test matches and 36One Day International (ODIs) for theEngland cricket team.
Dilley is perhaps best remembered for histail-end batting withIan Botham in England's second innings againstAustralia atHeadingley in 1981, reaching his highest Test score of 56 in an eighth-wicket partnership of 117 runs.[3][4]
Dilley was born and raised inDartford,Kent[5] and was educated at Dartford High School.[6] He played his early cricket forDartford Cricket Club atHesketh Park and trained as adiamond cutter atHatton Garden before embarking on a cricketing career withKent County Cricket Club.[5] He first played for the Kent Second XI in 1976, aged 17.[4]
He was married and divorced twice and had four children, includingChris Pennell, who has playedrugby union forEngland andWorcester Warriors,[5][6][7] whilst his youngest son, Jonathan, has played cricket for both Gloucestershire and Worcestershire Second XIs.[8] Kent cricketerGraham Johnson was a brother-in-law.
A fast bowler, Dilley made hisfirst-class cricket debut for Kent at the age of 18 in 1977, againstCambridge University. He failed to take a wicket, and was not selected again until the following season when was again wicketless against thetouring Pakistanis. Seven wickets in his third first-class match, againstMiddlesex, followed, although he took only one wicket in two further matches later in the season. He was, however, selected for England Young Cricketers against their West Indian counterparts.
In 1979, Dilley played 31 senior games for Kent, including taking four wickets for the cost of 41 runs (4/41) in aWorld Cup warm-up match against theNew Zealanders. He finished with 49 first-class wickets at anaverage of 23.48 runs per wicket.
TheEngland selectors, looking for a young fast bowler forthat winter's tour of Australia, took the bold decision to include the 20-year-old Dilley in the squad. He made his international debut in aOne Day International against West Indies on 24 November 1979 atSydney during the 1979/80Australian Tri-Series, a triangular tournament that also featuredAustralia. Dilley opened the bowling and took his first wicket in his third over.
A fortnight later, Dilley appeared in his firstTest match, making him the youngest cricketer to play for England in 30 years.[9] England captainMike Brearley showed confidence in his young bowler and he again opened the bowling. He took two wickets on debut. Australia finished their innings on 244 all out. In England's reply Dilley scored an unbeaten 38 runs, the second-highest score of the innings as England were all out for 228. He batted for 206 minutes, facing 57 balls. The game featured a memorable item on the second-innings scorecard:[6][10][11]
Although he also played in the second Test, he was replaced byJohn Lever for the third and final match of the series. Dilley took only seven wickets on that tour – "£7,000 for seven wickets" as the tour managerAlec Bedser commented.[1]
In 1980, Dilley was not selected until thethird Test against West Indies, atOld Trafford. Rain intervened, as it was to do in the fourth and fifth Tests as well, and all were drawn, but Dilley's eleven wickets, in the three innings he was able to bowl in, made sure of his place to face the same opponents in theCaribbean that winter. He took ten wickets on the tour, enough to retain his place for the1981 Ashes series.
Nothing that he had done before, from the moment he made his Test debut as the youngest Englishman for 30 years, until the day he retired from competitive cricket – not even the five for 68 he took in Brisbane in the winter of 1986–87 that catalysed a victory in match and Ashes series – would ever topple Headingley from the pinnacle of his achievements. It remains one of the most celebrated passages in the history of British sport.[12]
Dilley began the1981 Ashes series strongly, taking 12 wickets in the first two Tests, and was retained for the third Test atHeadingley. This game is best remembered for England's sensational victory afterfollowing on, and for the heroics ofIan Botham andBob Willis, but Dilley played his part as well, albeit as a 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 Botham at the crease. Botham said, "Right then, let's have a bit of fun",[3] and the two men put on 117 in just 80 minutes before Dilley (56 runs from 75 balls) was bowled byTerry Alderman.[1] England eventually established a lead of 130, and Dilley then held a boundary catch to dismiss Rod Marsh in Australia's second innings, England going on to dismiss Australia for 111, winning 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 byJohn Emburey,Paul Allott andMike Hendrick. He did get picked for the subsequent 1981/2 India tour, having pulled out of Graham Gooch'srebel tour of South Africa, something he later regretted for financial reasons.[13]
Despite being in and out of the side, Dilley's future as an international player seemed reasonably bright by 1983, and he played a full part in England's1983 Cricket World Cup campaign. Following the tournament, a neck injury forced him out of the game for a year,[1] and although he returned to county cricket in 1985, there was some doubt as to his long-term prospects. A decent performance that winter forNatal in South Africa helped in his rehabilitation and in 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 anaverage of 26.43 runs per wicket. 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 of almost 45 degrees.[4] Perhaps his most significant success came in1986/87 when he took 5/68 in the first innings of the first Test atBrisbane to help his team to a victory that set them on their way to anAshes win. Later on that tour, Dilley helped England to further success in winning theBenson & Hedges Challenge and theWorld Series Cup, taking his bestone-day international figures of 4/23 in a match against the West Indies (a performance which won him theman of the match award).[14] He also won theman of the match award for another one-day international performance against the West Indies that winter in which he took 4/46.[15]
In the drawn series againstNew Zealand the following winter Dilley produced his career-best Test match innings bowling figures, taking 6/38 including the first five wickets to fall atChristchurch.[1] He was fined £250 in the same match for swearing at the umpire, comments which were clearly picked up by thestump microphone.[16] He took a furtherfive-wicket haul atAuckland, and finished the series with 15 wickets at an average of 14.
For the 1987 season, Dilley moved toWorcestershire.[1] 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 key bowler as Worcestershire won the1988 and1989 County Championships; it was during this period that he wrote, with team-mateGraeme Hick, an account of one of the title-winning seasons, entitledHick'n'Dilley Circus.
Dilley recorded his best match figures in a Test match atLord's in 1988, match figures of 9/128 (comprising 5/55 and 4/73) against theWest Indies, although England lost the match.[17] However, Dilley's international career was beginning to wind down by the end of that season, and his final Test was atEdgbaston in the 1989 Ashes series. He made certain that he would not be picked again by accompanyingMike Gatting on therebel tour to South Africa that winter.[1] Unusually he finished on the winning side only twice in his 41 Test matches (the Headingley test of 1981 and that at Brisbane in 1986), the 1980s being a lean time for English cricket.
He continued to play for his county and in the 1991 season came sixth in thefirst-class bowling averages in domestic cricket (among bowlers who had taken a minimum of twenty wickets), taking 37 wickets at 22.24,[18] also helping Worcestershire to win theBenson and Hedges Cup.[19]
However recurring injury problems led to his retirement at the end of the 1992 season.[1]
Dilley's move to Worcestershire denied him the financial security of abenefit season. After retirement from playing, he found employment as a coach, firstly for theEngland women's cricket team, and then accompanying the men's side on theirtour to India in 2001/02. He also worked in a coaching capacity forZimbabwe andScotland. His last position was as head coach forLoughborough University Centre of Cricketing Excellence, where he was director of cricket for 11 years.[5][20][21] At Loughborough he coached, among others,Monty Panesar,James Anyon,Ruel Brathwaite,James Adams andRob Taylor.
Dilley died in a hospice atLeicester on 5 October 2011, aged 52, just one week after being diagnosed withoesophageal cancer.[6] A memorial service was held inWorcester Cathedral on 9 November 2011.[5]
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