Brad Hodge

Bradley John Hodge (born 29 December 1974) is an Australian cricket coach and former cricketer.

He was a right-handed batsman who batted in the middle order, as well as a part-time right-arm off-spin bowler.

Hodge played Lancashire League Cricket for Ramsbottom in 2000 and 2001 scoring 1000 runs in each season, breaking the clubs batting record in 2001.

His bowling also proved useful.

Hodge has played with County Cricket teams Durham, Lancashire, and Leicestershire – where he made his highest first class score of 302*.

Hodge scored many runs for Victoria, and his consistency came together by the 2000–01 season, where he was consistently overlooked for selection, despite being one of Australia's premier domestic batsmen.

He has argued he was the victim of New South Wales selection bias.

During his time at Leicestershire, he was accused of cheating by then-Derbyshire captain, Dominic Cork, by claiming a catch when it appeared that he had stepped over the boundary rope in a Twenty20 match in June 2003.

Hodge had actually completed the catch cleanly, before running over to the crowd to celebrate.

Hodge denied the accusation and considered taking legal action.

Cork was sanctioned by the ECB.

Hodge was called up as part of Australia's 2005 Ashes squad but was not used throughout the series.

He did, however, make a number of catches in the third test as a substitute fielder to get out Kevin Pietersen and Michael Vaughan both off the bowling of Brett Lee.

After a long time waiting for an international debut, he finally debuted for the Australian team against the West Indies in November 2005 at Bellerive Oval, Hobart, during the 2005–06 Test Series, becoming the 394th player to wear the baggy green for Australia.

He had his baggy green presented to him by Bill Lawry.

Hodge scored his maiden Test century for Australia against South Africa in Perth on 19 December 2005.

After ending the third day on 91 not out, Hodge displayed some nervousness in media interviews about reaching his century, but by the end of the innings he managed to finish with an unbeaten score of 203, batting with fluency on day four.

This innings was criticised by some Australian fans who felt that captain Ricky Ponting declared too late in allowing Hodge to chase his double century.

He also became the first to score a century in Australian domestic Twenty20, scoring 106 off 54 deliveries for Victoria against New South Wales at North Sydney, on 21 January 2006.

Hodge was a member of the Australian team that won the 2007 Cricket World Cup.

Hodge was a prolific run-scorer in domestic cricket, holding the records for the most runs (5,597) and most centuries (20) in Australian interstate one-day matches.

He is also Victoria's highest ever run-scorer in the Sheffield Shield (10,474 runs).

However, his opportunities to represent Australia were limited to 6 Tests, 25 one-day internationals (ODIs) and 15 T20 Internationals.

Hodge attended St. Bede's College in Mentone, Victoria.

He debuted for the Victorian Bushrangers as a 19-year-old, and was nicknamed "Bunkie" by Dean Jones for the fact that he shared a bunkbed with his brother at the time of his debut.

On 21 November 2007, playing for Victoria against Queensland, Hodge made his highest Pura Cup score of 286*.

He and Nick Jewell had batted undefeated for the entire third day of the game, only the fourth wicketless day's play in the history of the competition.

During the match against Queensland at the MCG on 7 March 2009, he scored 261.

In December 2009, Hodge announced his retirement from first-class cricket to focus on the one-day and Twenty20 versions of the game.

Hodge finished his domestic first-class career as Victoria's all-time leading run-scorer.

During this innings, he became the 6th batsman to pass 10,000 Sheffield Shield runs.

At the time, he was the leading run-scorer in the 2011–12 Ryobi One-Day Cup.

In January 2012, he retired from one-day cricket to focus exclusively on the Twenty20 game.

This criticism came after Australia did not bowl out South Africa in the 4th innings (despite having 120 overs to do so), with the match ending in a draw.

Australia were principally thwarted by a resolute Rudolph, who replaced the injured Jacques Kallis.

Hodge later made his One-day International debut, and, after two initial modest scores, he scored a half-century.

This earned him a recall for some games against South Africa in the VB Series, although he failed to capitalise and was dropped from the ODI side.

Hodge was dropped after only five tests in the team, and only three tests after scoring his double century against South Africa.

The selectors stated that the decision was made on the back of a poor Pura Cup season by Hodge, averaging around 25 for the summer when the team was selected (he finished the season with an average of 33.3).

Hodge captained the Adelaide Strikers in the 2016–17 Big Bash League and while the team struggled, he was a model of consistency and named in the team of the tournament at the age of 42.