Mervyn Dillon

Mervyn Dillon has long been labelled as the natural successor to Courtney Walsh. His action has a hint of the same well-oiled efficiency, and he takes a high percentage of wickets with the ball that angles in then just holds its own. But Dillon has neither the deceptive pace of the young Walsh nor the matchless craft of the later model. He remains an adequate stock bowler who, in another era, would hardly qualify for the new ball. Nevertheless, he did everything that was asked of him during West Indies' series victory over India in 2001-02, leading the attack with a rarely-witnessed passion, and bowling his side to victory at Bridgetown and Kingston. His bowling fell away after that, and the emergence of a number of younger, quicker bowlers meant that Dillon's place was no longer secure. He was left out after the series in South Africa in 2003-04, but made it into the Champions Trophy squad, and took a career-best 5 for 29 against Bangladesh at the Rose Bowl, although injury ruled him out of the rest of the tournament.
Simon Briggs (September 2004)