So farewell, Matthew Hoggard – what a fine servant you were for England.
Hoggy this week announced his retirement from cricket, finally hanging up his boots after a career more glorious and substantial than we often realise.
He will forever remain one of my favourite England bowlers of all time, but he was rarely taken as seriously as he should have been.
Virtually the perfect cricketing embodiment of an Old English Sheepdog, Hoggard perpetually wore an air of the village idiot – from his shambling, Lurch-like gait, to the haircut which resembled a disastrous attempt to knit while wearing boxing gloves.
But tell that to the 248 batsmen he dismissed in test cricket, at an average of 30.5, along with a hat-trick against West Indies in 2004. His tally puts him joint seventh in the list of England wicket-takers, and above all his contemporaries – Flintoff, Harmison, Caddick and Gough.
Hoggy made his test debut, rather anonymously, in the sensational Lord’s test against West Indies in 2000. This was the match in which
we bowled them out for 54, and then just edged past the victory target with eight wickets down. During those agonising final moments, the cameras time and again picked out Hoggard on the balcony – padded up, and facing the prospect of coming in, on debut, at number eleven, to score the winning runs.
Thankfully, it never came to that – and instead, Hoggy made his name as the yeoman-like workhorse of the England attack, earnestly trudging into the wind. But that reputation belied his genuine value as a match winner.
Hoggard took sixteen wickets in the 2005 Ashes, including the very first dismissal of the series, when his big in-swinger beat Hayden’s bat and ruined his stumps. In a little-noticed aspect of that classic summer, Hoggy went on to run the rule over Hayden – including the very next match, at Edgbaston. In a dismissal which for some reason still resonates strongly in my memory, Hoggard induced the big-jawed bully – through a beautifully deceptive use of swing – to chip him tamely to mid-off for a tone-setting duck.
People often forget that the Trent Bridge test effectively won us the 2005 series, and that was as much down to Hoggy as anyone. In the first innings he ripped through the top order, and at the end of the match he became a hero with the bat.
If you recall, we were chasing only 129 but had collapsed to a perilous 116-7. Out came Hoggard – and smashed Brett Lee through the covers for four. A champagne moment if ever there was one – and just maybe the shot which won the Ashes.
But 2005 would never have happened had we not won the series in South Africa the previous winter – a victory in which Hoggy was instrumental. The finest hour of his career came in the fourth test at Johannesburg, where with only two sessions remaining to bowl out the hosts, Hoggard rose to the challenge in imperious style with an awesome 7-61 which ultimately decided the series.
There are observers far better placed than me to analyse his bowling style and cricketing mechanics. I just remember him as a fan, and with great affection, as a player of huge heart and authentic skill – tenacious, determined, incisive, eccentric, funny, and charismatic in a unique but genuine way.
Yorkshire and Leicestershire supporters will have their own reasons, too, to pay tribute to Hoggy’s marvellous career. He might look daft, but he’s no fool, and as captain at Grace Road weathered a bitter period of internal strife before leading the side to the T20 trophy in 2011, his second year in charge.
But now Hoggard sails off into the sunset, to his family, his beloved dogs, and a well-earned retirement. We hope the future brings you happiness, Hoggy, because for us England fans, you gave us plenty.
