Brad Hogg: A rare breed of spinner calls it day

Australia's left-arm wrist spinner, George Bradley Hogg announced his retirement and cricket lost one more gem of player. More importantly because, Hogg represented a rare art of spin, and was Australia's mercurial left-arm wrist spinner since 'Chuck' Fleetwood-Smith in the 1930s.

Grown up on a big 300-acre farm near Williams, Western Australia Brad Hogg's international career begun as left-handed batsman, he tried his hand had at bowling fast, and later accidentally turned into a left-arm wrist spinner. Little did he know that he was destined to be the second highest wicket-taking spinner Australia has ever produced.

Hogg still recalls the moment of transition. "We were playing New South Wales who had a bloke called David 'Freddie' Freedman who bowled left-arm chinamen and there I was trying to knock off Geoff Marsh and Tom Moody's heads with bouncers," Hogg said.

"Tony Mann, a leg-spinner, asked me to bowl a few chinamen for the batsman to prepare for Freedman. "He told me that they were coming out OK and it went from there."

And that's how the journey begin from a being a cipher to a world-class spinner, with a rare art of form. The likes of Freedman and Bevan were always around to pass on a tip or two, but apart from those interactions, Hogg virtually went untrained by a left-arm wrist spinner. Astonishing, when you consider that the guy went of capture most wickets after Shane Warne for Australia.

Working as a Postman in The Australian Postal Service, Hogg thanks his employer for being good and giving him the time off for state matches and fitting the shifts around practice. He candidly admits that working as a Postman has its own "moments" like almost running over a rottweiler while he was bust delivering letters on his motorbike. "I do my round like a Formula One driver," he once bragged – no wonder as Hogg was one of the fittest Australian followed by young turks like Michael Clarke and another veteran Michael Hussey in the shuttle competition between wickets. Hogg has this ever-present smile of a postman who's never known frantic dogs or rainy days, and may be that's where his strength lies when you consider he spent 7 years in wilderness when he was dropped after his first test match in Delhi against India.

Hogg's career was anything but a straight smooth line. Dropped after the Man-of-the-series award after a fantastic Bangladesh series in April 2006, he came back in the reckoning in the Caribbean World Cup 2007, taking as many as 21 wickets for a spinner behind none other then Murali himself. Known to posses one of the most difficult to spot googlies in the game, he spun a web around batsmen who were unable to read him off the pitch, through the air or out of his hand. For reasons best known to him, strangely enough his test career never really took off. Brought back into Test cricket against the Indians, after Stuart McGill was still unfit, he played the first two tests, outplaying Ganguly in particular, and was left out for the third test match in Perth. Although he played the last test of the series, which eventually turned out to be his test match of his career, Hogg was rendered ineffective on the 4th and 5th day track, when part-timer spinners Andrew Symonds and Michael Clarke out-bowled him comprehensively. Things couldn't get any better, when Sachin Tendulkar got stuck into him, smashing his bowling all over the park. An honest man, Hogg confessed in his post-match interview that he couldn't do anything different because Sachin had smashed his best ball for six right over his head and that was about it.

Turning back the hands of time, Hogg recalls an incident from his school days where the students where asked to write an essay on what they would like to be when they grow up. Brad Hogg went to script his dream of playing for the Australian cricket team, however, the teachers and students laughed it off when the teacher read the essay in front of the whole class. Many years on and Hogg must be having the last laugh.

Thanks for the memories Hoggy. Well-played mate!

About the author: Vijayendra Darode is a technical writer by profession and works as freelance journalist for tech blogs and magazines. An avid follower of the game, Vijayendra virtually lives, eats and breathes cricket. He enjoys reading about the game, watching it and listening to the commentary. If you'd like to use this article for commercial purposes for your website or magazine, please mail him on vijayendrad@gmail.com or call him on +919881099629.