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English
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England
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ENG
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Graham Dilley
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Cricket_no_picpng
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Left-handed batsman (LHB)
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Right-arm fast (RF)
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41
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521
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1335
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0/2
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56
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16352
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138
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2976
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6
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0
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6/38
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10/0
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36
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114
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1140
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0/0
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31
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3403
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48
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2689
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0
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4/23
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4/0
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5 June
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2005
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(born
18 May 1959 in
Dartford ,
Kent ) was an
English Cricket er whose main role was as a
Fast Bowler .
Dilley made his
First Class debut for
Kent at the age of 18 in
1977 against
Cambridge University , but did not take a wicket and had to wait until the next season for another chance. His next game, in June
1978 , was against the touring
Pakistanis , but again he went wicketless. 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.
The
England selectors, looking for a young fast bowler to take on 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 themselves. A fortnight later Dilley appeared in his first
Test Match , and acquitted himself reasonably well, taking three wickets and scoring a handy unbeaten 38 in the first innings. The game is perhaps better remembered, however, for a chance occurrence on the second-innings scorecard, as follows:
DK Lillee C Willey B Dilley 19
On a more serious note, 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. 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 overlooked for the first two Tests against West Indies, not helped by the rain that ruined Kent's game against the tourists a few days before the first Test, but was called up for the third game, at
Old Trafford . Rain again intervened, as it was to do in the fourth and fifth Tests as well, and all were drawn, but Dilley's 11 wickets in the three innings he was able to make use of made sure of his place on the plane to face the same opponents in the
Caribbean that winter. England were outplayed in the 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 that 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. At the crease with Botham, the two men put on 117 in just 80 minutes before Dilley was bowled by
Terry Alderman . He then held a fine boundary catch to dismiss
Rod Marsh . Despite his part in the win, however, 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 .
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 , and he played a full part in England's
World Cup side, but then a dreadful neck injury forced him out of the game altogether for a full year, and though he returned to county cricket in
1985 there was some doubt as to his long-term prospects. A decent performance that winter for
Natal (16 wickets at a shade under 20 apiece) helped in his rehabilitation, and by
1986 Dilley was once again a bowler to be feared, taking 63 first-class wickets and winning a recall to England duties.
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. Perhaps his most significant success came in
1986 /
87 when he took 5-68 in the first innings of the first Test at
Perth to help his team to a victory that set them on their way to Ashes glory, and when he 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
Christchurch . He was almost unplayable at times in this series and finished with 15 wickets at an average of just 14.
For the
1987 season, Dilley had moved to
Worcestershire , and though a rather sudden move it proved a shrewd one as his new county were about to begin the most successful period in their history, with four trophies being won in the next three years. Despite further injury problems, he proved a vital cog in the wheel as Worcestershire won the
1987 and
1988 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, however, the strains on his body beginning to tell, and his final match for England was at
Edgbaston in the one-sided
1989 Ashes series. He made certain that he would not be picked again by accompanying
Mike Gatting on the rebel tour of
South Africa that winter, though he continued to play for his county for a couple more years. Dilley appeared in three of Worcestershire's matches in April
1992 , but by now it was becoming increasingly obvious that his body was no longer up to the demands of professional cricket and, despite a couple of appearances in the Second XI in the summer, he called it a day at the end of the season.
Dilley was short of money in his early retirement, in part because his move from Kent to Worcestershire had cost him the chance of a
Benefit Season , but after a while he found employment again as a coach, first to the England women's team and then accompanying the men's side on the tour to India in
2001 /
02 . He has also worked in a coaching capacity for
Zimbabwe and
Scotland , and for several county sides, as well as his current position as Head Coach to
Loughborough UCCE .
- List A debut: Kent vs Surrey , The Oval , 1978
- Last List A match: Worcestershire vs Derbyshire , Worcester, 1992
- ---Highest score: 37--- for Kent vs Hampshire , Canterbury , 1983
- ---Best bowling: 5-29 (twice):
--for Kent vs Scotland , Edinburgh , 1986
--for Worcestershire vs Middlesex , Lord's , 1988 ( NatWest Trophy final)
