The Church of Brad Hodgeology

Brad Hodge has been a consistent performer in Australian domestic cricket

Growing up in the Eastern Suburbs of Melbourne, there were two things that would draw me to the MCG week in and week out during the year at the domestic level. One being the Hawthorn Football Club during the winter, and the other being the Victorian Bushrangers in the summer.

While it was a given for any Melbournian to attend at least one day of the Boxing Day Test, and the ODIs during the international summer, fewer people persisted at the domestic level in the days prior to the Big Bash. I was one of those few people, who would go down to the Mighty G to see the Navy Blue Bushrangers in the Mercantile Mutual Cup, or its many incarnations since the mid 90s, and to watch them in the Sheffield Shield or tour matches against international line ups preceding Test cricket.

As a school aged boy, then growing into a young adult at university, things all around me and the MCG had changed. From the stands, to the sponsors, to the jerseys the Bushrangers wore, but one thing that didn’t was Brad Hodge batting for his life for Victoria with little or no recognition from the Australian selectors.

Over the years, he was a consistent performer with the bat, and in the field, and when need be with the ball in hand too, across the four-day and 50 over formats, and more recently the T20 format.

Simplistic answers were given for why he did not play 50 Tests or more than 100 ODIs for Australia. In a chat I had with Stuart MacGill last year, another Australian cricketer who probably didn’t play as much as his talent could have allowed to in any other era or nation, he alluded to the fact that like himself, Hodgey, was just born in the wrong era – a fact that Ricky Ponting reiterated during his stint commentating during this season’s BBL.

While it is true that for the majority of Hodge’s first-class career, the Australian batting line up consisted of men who could not have been omitted for anything else apart from injury. Langer, Ponting, the Waugh twins, Lehmann, and Martyn. None of whom could have been ignored. The greatest chance he had to make it into the Test side was after the retirement of Mark Waugh, during Steve Waugh’s last Test summer.

Surely that could have been it. I mean, Hodge had been scoring literally thousands of runs in Shield, ODD, County and T20 cricket. I vividly remember a knock in that summer preceding the four Test match series against India. Batting against a full strength Indian team in a warm up game, Hodge compiled 264 runs, whereas the Indians boasting a line up with the likes of Sehwag, Dravid, Tendulkar and Ganguly managed only two more runs at the loss of nine wickets. Despite a mammoth amount of runs in County and Shield cricket that summer, the vacant middle order spot was given to Simon Katich, reigniting the NSW vs Victoria debate.

No player in recent times has polarised Victorians from the rest of the Australian cricketing public – especially our northern neighbours – more than Brad Hodge, and his lack of opportunities at the highest level. So much so, that when Katich was given the nod ahead of Hodge in 2003/04, the then Victorian coach, the late David Hookes, had claimed that when NSW players were given a NSW Baggy Blue – they were also given a Baggy Green in a brown paper bag under the table.

There are critics of Hodge who claim his composure under Test level pressure was suspect, and that he never looked comfortable of being able to reproduce his first class form at the highest level. His exclusion from the limited overs teams however is harder to justify.

Hodge was a member of Australia’s 2007 World Cup winning squad, but was rarely utilised in such a dominant team. He was not considered for the 2011 edition of the World Cup, despite Australia having major holes in their batting stocks, and his unbelievable form in Cricket Australia’s trial split innings format preceding the World Cup.

At the age of 39, Brad Hodge has been selected in Australia’s squad for the World T20

Hodge plucked away at his craft, retiring from all but the T20 format, becoming a mercenary for T20 franchises all over the globe. Even in his late 30s being a mainstay in teams like the Rajasthan Royals and Melbourne Stars. Hodge was yet again unlucky to miss out on a World T20 berth in 2012, even after selectors seemed to have picked a squad on BBL form, bringing back another senior in Brad Hogg.

The man who had given so much to Victorian cricket, had accepted his fate, he knew chances were very unlikely that he would ever don a national jersey again. He kept plying his trade for different franchises, instrumental in the Rajasthan Royals charge to the Champions League T20 final and to the Melbourne Stars’ minor premiership in 2013/14.

Then out of the blue after Australia’s complete domination over England in the Tests and ODIs of 2013/14, Hodge was selected for the home T20s against the English after being the inform batsman of the BBL. His selection was six years after he had last played a T20 International, that too at the MCG in 2008.

This selection allowed for Hodge to gain cult status, this time not only by Victorians, but the Australian cricket public at large. Unfortunately, it was not a fairytale return to the Mighty G for Victoria’s forgotten son in national clothing. His return to the top level did lay the platform for him to be in a position to finish his international career in a manner fitting to the skills he possesses.

Hodge’s inclusion in the home T20 series, paved the way for him to travel to South Africa on the road to the World T20 in Bangladesh. Important contributions in Australia’s victories over the Proteas in the T20 series leading up to the World T20 strengthened his cult status in a team that boasts many T20 all stars – including Finch, Warner and Watson.

Were Australia to win the upcoming World T20, and that too on the back a few stellar knocks by Hodge, it would be the ultimate redemption for Hodge and his supporters. The outspoken Victorian can have his say, and hit back at former selection committees – especially the controversial committee lead by Andrew Hilditch at his non-selection in years gone by – with runs, and hopefully a(nother) World Cup winners medal. For now though, the loyal followers of the Church of Brad Hodgology are just ecstatic that he’s finally representing Australia one last time before he calls it curtains on a stellar career.