Opinions on Mervyn Dillon?

[Kenny]

I actually think Dillon is a pretty good bowler, with the potential to become better. He has virtually carried the Windies pace attack for a couple of seasons now, often without much luck.

He does seem to have lapses in concentration where some of his spells are a load of old bollocks, but at other times he seems to stand out as the Windies best.

I was amazed that he was dropped from the side that played Australia in the third test in the recent series.

Is he just 'good' or can he be 'great'?

 

[luckyeddie]

The best available, certainly.

There have been times when he has really looked hostile, but then again there's been the occasional woeful spell.

Curtly took a couple of series to really fire, but he had Courtney to help him along.

CW started well, but with Macca and Mikey already established in the side.

Neither had to carry the attack alone (for most of their career they had each other).

Dillon has really been the only real new ball man of quality for over 2 years. Not great - good. If someone comes along in the next year to carry the load, I think he could become 'better than good' (won't be drawn any further - I once wrote Curtly off as a 'plodder')

 

[Eclipse]

I think he is a good bowler but he does not seem very flexible.

He is like Caddick they both bow short of a length and that genraly works for them but when the pitch does not suit them or they are playing against some exellent back foot batsman they often dont seem to learn and continue to bowl the same inefective length & get punished.

 

[marc71178]

He's good, but he's no AA!

 

[Kenny]

Actually, they might have found a partner for Dillon with Jermaine Lawson - if they can get his action sorted out.

He seems fairly lively, and offers a bit more support than Collins, and Drakes. Drakes is a good bowler, but more workmanlike than dangerous.

 

[luckyeddie]

Yes - that horrible 'jerk' (not that kind of jerk - he's probably a nice guy) leaves the elbow suspiciously out of kilter and must have square-leg umpires the world over just itching to call him.

Drakes will be the 'stock' bowler for a couple of years, I reckon. Very accurate, 'busy' and does take wickets. First change for me.

 

[Langeveldt]

In Merv Dillon and Vasbert Drakes, West Indies appear to have some good bowlers who can bowl good spells and keep the pressure on quality batsmen...Something they have lacked since Walsh and Ambrose retired...

while i doubt Dillon will set the world on fire, he is a very very good bowler and deserves to lead the WI attack for years to come.....

 

[vicpride29]

yEAH he's now bad but he bowls way to short

 

[R_Powell_fan]

I think Reon King use to be by far the best...... he looked very promising but fell out of favor after an injury and then average domestic seasons... Now he is going to South Africa, McLean got a comeback call after preforming well in SA, though didn't use his chance well and now is dropped and overlooked.

Mervyn Dillon really looked to have turned the corner when he picked up 16 wickets in 3 tests before getting injured when WI last toured AUS and missed the last 2 tests. The thing I noticed about Mervyn Dillon is that when he bowls faster than usual, around 138-142 kph he really really looks the part, as opposed to when he is bowling between 132-136 kph when he often drops short and wide, which leads me to the conclusion that he relies on rythm a lot lot more than people think he does....

*the bad thing is he doesn't find him optimum rythm very often...
*the good thing is that he does tend to come back after a horrible spell and bowl a much better spell IF he comes back with a fresh attitude and mind, again that depends on form and confidence....

Well at least thats the way I look at it...

Is it just me or do a lot of FAST bowlers that run through a side internationally suddenly have bad actions :rolleyes: :rolleyes: ...then again I can't comment on that coz I don't see much of international cricket nowadays

The chances are that Reon King won't make a comeback, because of young guys like Darren Powell and Tino Best, however, I think it would be injustice if he doesn't plays One-Dayers again.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

The chances are that Reon King won't make a comeback, because of young guys like Darren Powell and Tino Best, however, I think it would be injustice if he doesn't plays One-Dayers again.

Reon King got a recall for Zimbabwe and his action was all messed up. It's a shame how an injury can ruin a person's career. His future was so bright too.

 

[Andre]

Slightly off-topic, but one for Marc here. How about adding Dave Bernard to the AAAS?

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

That's unfair. Dave Bernard hasn't had enough of an opportunity yet.

 

[marc71178]

Slightly off-topic, but one for Marc here. How about adding Dave Bernard to the AAAS?

Sorry, but he's never been built up as a talent on the lines that AA was, and to an extent the Canadian cricketer turned chef de Groot was!

Now, if someone were to start a thread saying how brilliant he was,he may get a spot.

 

[R_Powell_fan]

Here is a comparison between King and Dillon......IMO, King has the edge over Dillon statistically-wise specially in ODIs


ODIs
Bowler Mat O R W BB1 BB2 Ave Econ SR 4w 5w
Dillon 89 770.3 3507 114 5/51 5/52 30.76 4.55 40.5 3 2
Dillon 48 413 1823 58 5/51 4/20 31.43 4.41 42.7 2 1
King 48 413.5 1696 73 4/25 4/32 23.23 4.09 34.0 2 0

Tests
Bowler Mat O R W BBI BBM Ave Econ SR 5 10
King 14 414.1 1222 44 5/51 7/81 27.77 2.95 56.4 1 0
Dillon 14 478.4 1592 47 5/111 6/126 33.87 3.32 61.1 1 0
Dillon 33 1262.4 3893 123 5/71 8/123 31.65 3.08 61.5 2 0

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Here is a comparison between King and Dillon......IMO, King has the edge over Dillon statistically-wise specially in ODIs

You're clearly not listening to me. I'm saying that King was an outstanding bowler in Tests and ODI's but is not anymore. He's struggled since his injury and may never be the same. You don't pick a player on stats or on past performance. You pick a player on the capability to perform at the present time. At least for the moment, King has lost that capability.

 

[hourn]

Dillon isn't a bad bowler. Gets quite a bit of bounce, and plenty of pace of the deck. But I dont think he has the quality to speerhead a world class attack.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

The point is that he is the best we have at the moment.

 

[Kenny]

Yes that is the point......and I think he has done a good job without much support. Imagine if he had Gillespie and Lee in support........that's why I think it's important to persist with Jermaine Lawson.

BTW, question on Reon King - I have heard Richie Benaud's thoughts on him, he rates him very highly. Is he 'express' or more fast medium?

 

[R_Powell_fan]

You're clearly not listening to me. I'm saying that King was an outstanding bowler in Tests and ODI's but is not anymore. He's struggled since his injury and may never be the same. You don't pick a player on stats or on past performance. You pick a player on the capability to perform at the present time. At least for the moment, King has lost that capability.

The point I'm trying to make is that King needs some confidence in himself to bowl the way he used to, WI will not lose anything if they gave him a chance in a home ODI or two instead of somebody say, like Collins who isn't a youngster like Lawson or D.Powell or Best, if he fires he proves that he is good enough if he doesn't well then at least they have a reason for dropping him...... I've seen a lot of these cases where a player is injured and missed a series, when he recovers he doesn't play even though he performed better than his replacement earlier.....such cases include guys like Y.Khan, who scored a century at the end of a series in SRL, was then dropped.....then came back in NZL to score a century on his very first comeback innings, this nearly happened to R.Ponting........

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

The point I'm trying to make is that King needs some confidence in himself to bowl the way he used to, WI will not lose anything if they gave him a chance in a home ODI or two instead of somebody say, like Collins who isn't a youngster like Lawson or D.Powell or Best,

King was given a chance in Zimbabwe in 2001 and he didn't fire...at all really. At times, it's not just confidence that a player needs, but so often a player is forced to make adjustments to his action (minor or major) which drastically affect his game. This is what appears to have happened with King. I think his overseas contract will do him well though and I hope that he can return to his previous form because he is a great talent.