Rodney Hogg, the former Australian tear-away pacer is a treat to listen to. He is candid about his views of the game and is as aggressive as he was as a bowler.
Today he is a corporate speaker, but during his playing days he was known as a handsome pacer as he was blond-haired and blue-eyed. It was interesting to hear his views on all hot topics of the game.
When asked about Phillip Hughes, who died after being hit by a bouncer late last year, he said: “It is like you’re driving a car and someone runs under the car — it’s very sad — but I don’t know if I’m sorry for Sean Abbott [who bowled the bouncer].
“It’s just one of those things that, when you bowl short, you don’t know that’s going to happen. People have been hit on the heart and died, but if someone got hit near the helmet and passed away then the hierarchy will have to look at the game a bit differently. But you can’t take the bouncer out of the game. The game of cricket is about bowling bouncers.”
Hogg had once destroyed England with five-wickets spells in both innings of Tests in Perth and Melbourne, giving him 20 wickets from two matches.
When asked about sledging, he said: “The best form of sledging in the world is when you can’t understand it. Arjuna Ranatunga and Javed Miandad, when they sledged, you couldn’t understand them.
“I think Miandad might have been the biggest sledger the game has ever seen, because nobody knew what he was saying. That’s why, when at the MCG Warner was trying to tell India to ‘speak English’ they made a big deal out of that. Warner was just saying ‘speak English’ — he wasn’t sledging. He wasn’t doing anything disrespectful but he got fined.”
Hogg wants umpires who know the languages of the teams playing.
“You have neutral umpires, but if New Zealand is playing India, I think you’ve got to have an umpire who can understand Indian dialects. If you’ve got an umpire who can’t understand [Virat] Kohli or [Mahendra Singh] Dhoni or whoever, they can say whatever they want.”
Who, according to Hogg, is the bowler to watch out for? “Unfortunately it is [Sri Lanka’s Lasith] Malinga, I think his days might be numbered. Sri Lanka have been a powerhouse for a long time now but it’s just the light’s about to go out of the powerhouse.
“[Mahela] Jayawardene and [Kumar] Sangakkara are also going. If Sachin [Tendulkar] is [Don] Bradman, then what is Sangakkara? His batting average is 56 and he is the the fastest man to 11,000 runs. Why don’t you all write more about Sangakkara? Sangakkara’s record is unbelievable. He is a superstar.”
To a query as to whether fast bowlers need to be aggressive as a person to succeed as a fast bowler, Hogg said: “I don’t think so. You can be a nice person as long as you’re totally aggressive on the ground.
“You may not find someone like that, but Brett Lee is a nice person off the ground and so is Pat Cummins. We have some nice fast bowlers who are also nice but also aggressive on the ground. You’re wasting your time if you are not aggressive. You can’t be mild and bowl fast — you’ve got to look to other areas to get that little extra yard of pace. Aggression gets you a bit faster.”
When asked who could be the winner of the World Cup this time, Hogg said: “I like the look of New Zealand. But when I think about South Africa, they have got the two best players in the world in [Dale] Steyn and AB de Villiers. South Africa haven’t won the World Cup. I’d like to think South Africa are the ones to watch out
