The long-running verbal feud between Merv Hughes and Javed Miandad across multiple series produced cricket's most celebrated sledging exchanges, including the famous 'bus driver' insult and Miandad's mocking celebration when Hughes was dismissed.
Merv Hughes was Australia's larrikin fast bowler through the late 1980s and early 1990s — not the quickest but relentless, competitive and verbally unmerciful. He embraced the role of cricket's most recognisable figure partly through his extravagant moustache but more through his tireless aggression.
Javed Miandad needed no provocation to engage in verbal combat. Pakistan's greatest batsman was a supreme irritant to opposition teams — cunning, combative, and never remotely intimidated. He had already survived the Lillee kick episode without flinching.
Australia and Pakistan played regularly through this period with fierce competition. Hughes had dismissed Miandad multiple times using full-pitched deliveries into the pads after softening him with short balls. Miandad had hit Hughes for several sixes, mocking his pace.
The bus driver exchange occurred when Miandad, after Hughes had bowled one delivery too many short balls, looked at his rolling figure and quipped the insult. Hughes stored it.
Over several Australia-Pakistan series, Merv Hughes and Javed Miandad developed one of cricket's great on-field rivalries. Hughes, with his enormous walrus moustache and bear-like frame, bowled with aggressive hostility and sledged continuously. Miandad matched him word for word. The most famous exchange came when Miandad called Hughes a 'bus driver' — mocking his physical appearance. Hughes later dismissed Miandad and ran past him saying 'Tickets please.' When Hughes was eventually dismissed, Miandad ran to him and pantomimed punching a ticket stub. The exchange delighted cricket fans and became part of the folklore of 1990s cricket.
Miandad calls Hughes a 'bus driver' while batting — Hughes seethes but says nothing
Hughes dismisses Miandad and runs past him saying 'Tickets please!'
Hughes later dismissed while batting — Miandad sprints over and mimes punching a bus ticket
Crowd and both dressing rooms erupt in laughter — even umpires struggle to keep straight faces
Multiple additional verbal exchanges across matches: Hughes mimics Miandad's batting stance; Miandad mimics Hughes's run-up
1989-01-01
Hughes and Miandad first major verbal clashes, Australia vs Pakistan
1991-01-01
Famous 'bus driver/tickets please' exchange during series in Australia
1991-01-02
Miandad punches imaginary ticket stub when Hughes dismissed — becomes iconic moment
“I told him he looked like a bus driver. He didn't like it. When he got me out, he said 'Tickets please.' Fair enough. But when I got him out later, I made sure he got his ticket punched.”
“Javed was the most competitive, most infuriating man I ever bowled to. He got under your skin. But I gave as good as I got.”
“Watching those two was sometimes better entertainment than the cricket itself.”
Both players retired in the mid-1990s with the feud as part of their legacies rather than a stain on them. They spoke about it jovially in later years. Hughes rated Miandad as one of the toughest opponents he faced; Miandad said Hughes was the most annoying cricketer he ever came up against.
The stories became staple material for cricket dinners and documentaries. Hughes coached at various levels after retirement; Miandad coached Pakistan. Their rivalry softened into mutual respect.
Neither player won definitively — their feud was mutual combat with honours roughly even. Miandad averaged 43+ against Australia across his career while Hughes troubled him often. The rivalry produced some of the finest sustained sledging cricket has seen.
The Hughes-Miandad exchanges became the gold standard of cricket sledging — brilliant because it was funny, theatrical, and never crossed into genuine nastiness. Both men had the intelligence and timing to turn on-field aggression into comedy.
It helped normalise a certain understanding that sledging had a lighter side — that humour could coexist with competitiveness at the highest level. Cricket broadcast teams still use the ticket-punching story as an example of when banter works.
Australia vs Pakistan
22 November 1981
Dennis Lillee kicked Javed Miandad on the field, prompting Miandad to raise his bat as if to strike Lillee. Umpire Tony Crafter intervened to separate them.
New Zealand vs West Indies
12 February 1980
Michael Holding kicked the stumps out of the ground in frustration after an LBW appeal was turned down against John Parker.
West Indies vs Australia
28 April 1995
Curtly Ambrose got in Steve Waugh's face after being told to go back to his mark. Richie Richardson had to pull Ambrose away. Ambrose then bowled a devastating spell.