'I have never regretted touring South Africa'

Rodney Hogg claimed 41 wickets at an astounding average 12.85 on his Ashes debut and yet Australia were hammered 5-1 by England in the 1978-79 series when the cream of the Aussie attack – Dennis Lillee, Jeff Thomson and Len Pascoe -- had enrolled itself for the rebel World Series Cricket.    

  
 
Hogg’s 41 wickets in the six-match series are the best returns in an Ashes clash from either side but unfortunately it came in a losing cause. Even in defeat, Australia had something to cheer about – they had invented someone who had all the makings of a great fast bowler. However, frequent back injuries took a heavy toll on his body and his career never reached the heights it promised to. Hogg ended up with 123 wickets from 38 Tests at 28.47 and bagged 85 wickets at 28.44 from 71 ODIs. Deccan Herald caught up the cricketer-turned-corporate speaker, who once owned a fruit shop, for a chat.

Excerpts.

Talk us through your career… Do you think you underachieved?

Well I was 27 (when made my debut) and I had four or five bad back spasms because I am not a big bloke. It all started on 27 and finished at 34. I wish I had had a slightly different direction when I was younger. But I didn’t believe in this stuff, I wasn’t thinking of Test cricket. I wasn’t thinking about playing Test cricket until I hit (Clive) Radley (England) in the head in the October of 1978. And that was the first day, I was going home and I still remember a billboard that said Hogg blasts Poms… I promise you I had been only been thinking Shield cricket up until that stage.

What was it like when you started playing?

Well when you have such a first good season, you start thinking you are pretty good, don’t you? I started to strut around as if I was a star and then I went to India and had a bowling average of 55 or something like that.

Tell us about stump-kicking incident in Bangalore...

I can see it like it was yesterday. Was it 12,000 that ground held? 14,000? It wasn’t a big ground. I wasn’t experienced to get booed off the ground by 12,000 people, small environment. Karsan Ghavri, I was at the non-striker’s end, was going over the line that much (four inches) and when I was bowling, this great, big, huge umpire (KB Ramaswamy) kept no-balling me. So I did the nut -- kicked the middle stump out of the ground. If you kick the base, you could have hurt yourself. I kicked the top and it flicked out and went right between his legs. It would have made a very good photo. The crowd just booed me and threw rocks at me. Anyway, it was a beautiful kick.

You predicted Shane Warne would take 500 Test wickets in your column and you were sacked by the newspaper…

I was writing for The Truth newspaper and I faced Shane Warne in his second district game. The moment I faced him, I had no idea. I thought this is seriously good bowling. Shane bowled three balls to me and those were as good a three deliveries as I had faced from a leg-spinner. So, I thought this was amazing. And the truth with newspapers is you exaggerate a bit and I exaggerated. But it turned out to be true. Oh I was wrong, he got 700 wickets and I said he will get 500. But he has been just a freak of the game… He is the Bradman of bowling. But two days later (I was sacked).

You are a corporate speaker now…

I am a sort of entertainer speaker. I bought a fruit shop -- I used to go in the market, buy and sell and then bring it back -- and by the time I was done with the shop, I was nearly 50. But I think when you are in your 30s and early 40s, you shouldn’t talk about yourself too much because people think you are a big head but then when you get old, you get to 50-60, you can talk about yourself, it doesn’t matter. Just got to know people and now I try to be an entertainer because you can talk about yourself.

Do you have any regrets of touring South Africa because it ended your Australia career?

No regrets whatsoever. Why would I have regrets? I enjoyed cricket, it was tough. I met the hardest cricketer I have played against, Clive Rice. And I had the honour to bowl to Graeme Pollock. Unfortunately, we didn’t play Barry Richards. I enjoyed South Africa. I was obviously at the end of my career, I was 34-35 and so it was good for me.

What did you make of the politics of it all and your ban?

I couldn’t give a rat’s backside about politics. Not my problem. I mean we were trading with South Africa, so why should we be making any sort of stance. If Australia was trading with South Africa, it is the most ludicrous thing I have ever heard. They had to look like they were doing something (so they banned me) but it didn’t worry me because I was finished. I honestly didn’t think much about it.