Legendary Australia cricketer Rodney Hogg has been in the news recently after West Indies skipper Kraigg Brathwaite said that his team used the former star’s criticism as inspiration during the win over Australia in the second Test match in Gabba. Hogg earlier called the West Indies side ‘hopeless’ and ‘pathetic’ but after the match, Brathwaite flexed his muscles and even went to ask – “Are these muscles big enough for him?”. Hogg has finally broken his silence since Australia’s defeat and he said that the match looked like a ‘two-and-a-half-day game’ but West Indies fought back brilliantly.
“When I looked at the West Indies in that first innings in this second Test, I was having a look here and I’m thinking to myself, ‘How good was my prediction?’. They were 5/65 and Starc had three wickets … it was looking like a dead set two-and-a-half-day game.”
“What an amazing performance, it was fantastic to see them given an opportunity to play a second Test match against Australia. The fact that they were up at the Gabba, some of them had never played in a day-night game before. There’s a pink ball. They’re in front of 30,000 or 40,000 people. It’s a different experience,” said Hogg to Sen.com.au.
It was West Indies’ first Test win on Australian soil since 1997 and despite facing early setbacks, Shamar Joseph claimed a terrific seven-wicket haul to guide the visitors to victory.
Hogg joked that he has apparently “reinvented West Indies Test cricket” and said that West Indies were hopeless when he made that comment but with time, they showed massive improvement.
“Well, apparently, I’ve reinvented West Indies Test cricket. They were hopeless before I made those comments and they’ve, they’ve all jumped up and been motivated to play well.”
“They came here with six guys that didn’t have a Test cap and they were so inexperienced, and you sort of thought, ‘Well, they are a bunch of hopeless players’, but give them some game time a few of them showed, some real ability, didn’t they? The better that the longer the two games went on, the better they got,” he further added.
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