Hallowe'en Top 10: Frightening cricketers

Grip your pillows tightly in clammy hands, go pale, inhale sharply and gasp in terror as you cast your eyes on 10 of the scariest men to play cricket.

1.  Merv Hughes
With a 'tache as ridiculous as his gut was large, Mervyn cut an imposing figure on the field.  Could stop a clock from 18 yards with one of his legendary stares.

2.  Sylvester Clarke
A Windies fast bowler at the time when they had greats of the game in their starting XI, Clarke did not play many tests (11). But he was fearsome man, as many who faced him in his Surrey pomp in the 80s will testify.  Bounced with more regularity than Zebedee on a trampoline, and with great nastiness.  Was not averse to lobbing the odd brick into the crowd either.

3.  Curtly Ambrose
Said little, but his stare combined with that terrifying run up put paid to most bats before he even release the ball at a frighteningly fast pace.  A batsman once asked him to remove his famous white wristbands, and nearly died as a result.

4.  Dennis Lillee
Looked like a pornstar, bowled like a cannon.  A pornstar cricket cannon.  Intimidated opponents, used metal bats and even had rows with his own captain on occasion.

5.  Gary Pratt
A short willowy man, so terrifying in the in-field that an Aussie captain was mesmerised by his cat-like moves.  And then had a massive strop about it.

6.  Martin McCague
Not so much scary in himself, but terrifying in what he represents: the willingness that England had for a time to select anyone Australian who fancied playing for them - no matter how obviously rubbish they were.  (see also: White, Craig)

7.  Roy Gilchrist
There are many words to describe West Indian Gilchrist, but "unhinged" is probably the most apt.  Gilchrist had a litany of on-field incidents: deliberately overstepping his mark and bowling beamers from 18 yards; knocking India's Kripal Singh's turban off with an overstepped bouncer; and uprooting a stump in a Lancashire League match to wallop an opponent with it being but a few.

8.  Sree Santh
Looks like a computer science student, but it's the geeky ones you have to watch sometimes.  Beamers, arguments, verbals - this fella does it all.  Even managed to get involved in a load of aggro when 12th man in the recent Australia series.

9.  Shahid Afridi
Boom!  Boom! Afridi can dismantle most teams with bat and ball.  But it's his manic smile and the fact that he is from the mountains that gets him on this list.  The cricket version of a Star Wars Tusken Raider

10.  Matthew Hayden
Dismantles attacks with his nuclear opening style. But the truly scary thing about Matt is that he could then show you how to do a canard pot au feu with green vegetables before drinking 12 beers and throwing his leg behind his head.