Mumbai: In the summer of 1996, a young boy (with a portion of his tongue sticking out) bowled his first international over at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo against Zimbabwe. Cut to 2015 – the tongue still comes out during the delivery and he is fitter, but dons a different jersey. When Brad Hogg made his international debut, Gautam Gambhir – his current captain of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) – was a 14-year-old school kid.
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For six years, Hogg’s career remained under the shadow of Shane Warne. An injury to the wizard meant a call-up for him. But the chinaman, who is the oldest player in the IPL, kept rolling his arms till he made a comeback permanently (well almost) in 2002.
Former India captain Sourav Ganguly – known for dancing down the track to left-arm spinners – forgot his steps whenever Hogg took the ball. He was one of the few from the breed against whom the southpaw struggled. Ganguly fell prey to his wrong ones five times out of seven Tests the Australian played in his career.
Once, he clean bowled the iconic Sachin Tendulkar too.
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From Mark Taylor to Steve Waugh, and finally under Ricky Ponting – he has appeared under different generations of Australian cricket.
Despite being a part of a World Cup winning squad twice (one against India in 2003), his hunger for cricket never subsided. Hogg announced retirement from international cricket in 2008 but decided to return with his flippers in the T20 format, in the inaugural edition of Big Bash League.
However, his stint with IPL began when he joined Rajasthan Royals in 2012. So far, the 44-year-old has 11 wickets in 11 matches with best figures of 2/31. KKR, the defending champions this year, signed him up and Hogg was seen in purple against Chennai Super Kings on Tuesday.
(Photo: BCCI)
He not only kept the ferocious Chennai batsmen quiet, he also removed Ravindra Jadeja.
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Cricketers came and went, some unfit, some tired of the sport but Hogg is still in the loop, right from Titan Cup (1996) to IPL 2015. Sarfaraz Khan, the youngest in the cash-rich tournament, wasn’t even born when Hogg dismissed Ganguly at the Feroz Shah Kotla in his debut Test (1996).
The cricketer, whose first job was that of a postman, is carrying one powerful message – no matter how old one is, if the passion is intact and the body is willing, the 22 yards will never tire a cricketer out.
The tongue may still stick out.
