Cricketing Thoughts - Brad Hodge

It’s Just Not Cricket

For most players at domestic level, given the current dire situation Australian cricket is in, averaging 80 and sitting atop the domestic one day run list with almost 500 runs would result in a phone side vigil waiting for ‘the call’ from the selectors. A season starting with two match-saving unbeaten centuries would have most waiting for the elevation to higher honours. However Bradley John Hodge is a different player to most. Season after season, the runs are piled on. Season after season, centuries are made and matches are won solely off the bat of Hodge. However, the step up has eluded Hodge for many years.

Seen by many as the most unlucky batsman of his time in Australian cricket, Hodge is one of a few immensely unfortunate batsmen to be dropped after making a test double century. After 5 matches, with a batting average of 58.42, Hodge was cast aside from the Australian XI back in 2006. He vowed to fight back but since that performance has added only one more game to his list. Called up as an emergency for Michael Clarke against the West Indies in 2008, Hodge made a solid 67 before being dropped again. This shoddy treatment from the selectors was a recurring theme of Brad Hodge’s time as an Australian batsman. Season after season, the runs were made, but, the call never came. When it did, Hodge was the proverbial scapegoat whenever the team didn’t perform at its peak, the first to be given the axe as the selectors persisted with others. Given an extended streak in coloured clothing, Hodge made 97 and 99 to seal himself a spot at Australia’s tilt for a 3^rd straight World Cup in the Caribbean. He celebrated his maiden ODI century against the lowly cricketing minnows Netherlands by belting 129 off 87 balls. For the Cup, that remained his last bat as he watched the final from the sidelines as it became ever more evident that Hodge was nothing more than a ‘back-up’ batsman in the eyes of Australian selectors.

Brad Hodge, over the past 16 years, has been Australia’s most consistent performer with the bat on the domestic scene. Debuting in 1993 as a precocious 18 year old, oozing talent, Hodge looked as if he was a state cricket veteran by piling up over 1000 runs in his first season. Like any batsman, form slumps came and went but Hodge emerged from each one more technically sound. However it was the turn of the century where Brad Hodge began to break down the door of selection through sheer weight of runs. In 2000-01, he made over 1000 runs and was integral in Victoria’s back-to-back Shield victories.  The very next season he was at it again and was named joint “Player Of The Season” In the season of 2002, Hodge decided to use his batting prowess to lead Leicestershire to a one-day trophy while in the same season smacking the highest score in Leicestershire’s cricketing history with a powerful unbeaten 302.

Cricket is a quirky game and it seems that fate is simply not on Hodge’s side.  Given a Cricket Australia contract in the year of 2004, it seemed Hodge would finally be given the selection he deserved against India. Michael Clarke put an end to that theory by becoming the 16^th Australian to score a century on test debut and announcing himself as a star of the future. Hodge was forced to wait until 2005, where he faced the West Indies. Debuting one match after fellow batsman Michael Hussey, Hodge made a sparkling 60 on debut and showed the cricketing world what he had to offer. One must contemplate the contrasting fortunes of those two men. Michael Hussey struggled and made 1 and 29 on debut and today is regarded as one of Australia’s greatest batsmen of the modern era, the only player to average over 50 in both major forms of cricket at international level, while Hodge is regarded as one of the many ‘nearly-men’ of Australian cricket.

Since his last test match, Brad Hodge has been consistently carving up domestic cricket for 4 years now. Ever remaining on the fringes of higher honours but seemingly just out of reach. Hodge’s form in the shorter formats of the game over the past 3 years has been nothing short of outstanding. One of the most sought after Twenty20 batsmen in the world and 2^nd on the all-time run scorer’s list in this format worldwide, Hodge has been overlooked time and time again for the national team. For one, our T20 side are not world beaters and it is evident that Australia has still not fully adjusted to this format of the game. However, even through sheer weight of numbers and over 100 games of experience, Brad Hodge has not been selected regularly. Currently, Hodge has scored the most runs in Australian One Day Domestic matches than any other batsman in history while at the same time, sits at 4^th on the all-time list with over 10,000 runs in the longer format of the game.

Piling on the runs with no reward eventually takes its toll. By the time the 2009-10 season arrived, Hodge's heart was no longer in first-class cricket. He began the season in emphatic style with a brilliant 195 against South Australia, but, at the point of making his century, Hodge was struck with fatigue. He ran down the pitch and slapped the new ball over the bowler’s head for a six and declared that he no longer had the passion to play in the longer format and retired soon after. However he vowed to continue on in the shorter format for a couple more seasons. The form of Bradley Hodge is astonishing, entering the twilight of his career, in season 2009-10, he topped the ODD Cup run charts with over 600 runs. This season he looks set to eclipse that.

As the Australian selectors continue to baffle many with their odd choices, namely 36 men being handed a baggy green over the past four years, one must ask whether youth can bring Australian cricket back to the glory days or whether experience is the true key towards success. Experience cannot be bought, it cannot be found in youth nor can it be forged easily. Runs have been freely flowing off the bat of Bradley Hodge for almost 17 years now. The calibre of a batsman is evident in their run scoring, Hodge has outscored the majority of his peers in domestic cricket for almost half a decade now consistently, and one must ask what else need be done by the commanding Victorian if he is ever to receive further appearances at the highest level.

Sanjeet Ajgaonkar