Brad Hogg

George Bradley Hogg (born 6 February 1971) is a former Australian cricketer who played all formats of the game.

He was a left-arm wrist spin bowler, and a lower-order left-handed batsman.

Hogg made his first-class cricket and domestic limited overs debut for Western Australia in February 1994 as a middle order batsman.

He did not begin to bowl left-arm wrist-spin until former Australian test leg-spinner Tony Mann asked him to bowl them in the nets as preparation for the batsmen to face NSW spinner David Freedman.

In 1996, he was selected in the Australian team to tour India as a replacement for Warne who was injured.

He made his Test debut against India in Delhi, taking 1/69 and making 1 and 4.

He also played seven One Day International matches.

However, the belief at the time was that he was merely a place-holder for Warne and he was discarded from the international squad for some time.

Hogg was also in and out of the Western Australian squad for the next few years as he struggled for form.

In 1999 he made a brief foray in umpiring Australian rules football, making his way up to Westar Rules Colts (under 18) level.

At the age of 45 years and 92 days he was the oldest to play in the IPL.

Hogg was absent from the international scene until called up to replace Warne during the 2002–03 VB Series (an annual tri-nations one day tournament in Australia) after Warne injured his shoulder.

However, Warne then tested positive to a banned diuretic in a pre-World Cup drugs test, leaving Hogg to play as Australia's specialist spinner in Australia's Cup winning side and filled that role until his own retirement, this was due to Warne's retirement from the one day game.

His earlier international career was revitalised by Shane Warne's absence from cricket in 2003 due to suspension from a drugs test and subsequent retirement from one-day cricket.

He is Australia's eleventh most successful One Day International bowler and third most successful spinner in terms of wickets taken.

He was a member of Australia's victorious 2003 and 2007 Cricket World Cup teams.

With his time representing Australia, Hogg won multiple ICC titles with the team: the 2003 Cricket World Cup, the 2007 Cricket World Cup, and the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy.

Hogg was recalled to the Australian Test team to tour the West Indies in April 2003, where he played two matches.

The gap of 78 games between his Test appearances is the equal-longest such run for an Australian.

He also played against Zimbabwe at the SCG later that year, but was upstaged by part-time slow left-arm wrist-spin Simon Katich, who took 6/90 for the match (Hogg took 3/119).

He was left out of the Test team in 2004 but remained in the national one day team as the preferred spinner to Stuart MacGill.

In 2005–06, he became a one-day only player with Western Australian selectors preferring to play young spinner Beau Casson ahead of Hogg in the state's Pura Cup side.

Hogg is a noted fitness fanatic, scoring the highest beep test result in the Australian team in 2005, with a score of 14.6.

However, with Casson's move to New South Wales in 2006–07, Hogg regained his place in the first-class side.

In 2007–08, after a four-year layoff, Hogg was recalled to Test cricket to play against India after Stuart MacGill had to withdraw from the team due to suffering from carpal tunnel syndrome in his bowling hand.

He retired from International cricket on 4 March 2008 after the 2007–08 Commonwealth Bank Series.

During the second Test against India in Sydney in January 2008, Hogg scored a Test-career-best 79 as part of a 173-run partnership with Andrew Symonds — a 7th wicket record for both the Sydney Cricket Ground and Australia vs. India.

It was alleged that in that match Hogg called the Indian captain Anil Kumble and vice-captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni "bastards".

Hogg faced a ban of between two and four Test matches after being charged with the level three offence under the International Cricket Council's Code of conduct which refers to abuse by reference to a player's "race, religion, gender, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin."

The hearing was set to take place on 14 January in Perth, but the BCCI dropped the charges a few days later.

Hogg's highest ODI score is 71 not out against England, and his best bowling figures in an innings are 5/32 against the West Indies.

On 27 February 2008, Hogg announced his retirement from international cricket, effective after the Commonwealth Bank Series.

His test career (17 wickets at 54.88) was ultimately unremarkable, but his 156 One Day International wickets at 26.84 coupled with useful lower-order batting placed him among Australia's best one-day players.

In a surprise comeback to the Twenty20 (T20) format at the inaugural Big Bash League in 2011, Hogg became a cult hero of the short form, bringing about a call-up to the 2012 and 2014 T20 World Cup Australia sides, as well as international T20 contracts around the world.

Hogg is the only player over 40 years of age to take 100 wickets in the T20 format.

In September 2011, Hogg was appointed coaching director of Cricket PNG and head coach of the Papua New Guinea national cricket team, replacing fellow Australian Andy Bichel.

He was due to coach the team at the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier, but resigned in January 2012 after being recalled to play for Australia.

Hogg released The Wrong'Un, an autobiography with Greg Growden, in November 2016 and enjoys a career as a cricket commentator and has become a popular media personality between cricket commitments.

Hogg grew up on a sheep farm in Williams, Western Australia as an only child, and is a former pupil of Aquinas College, Perth.

Later, he completed a Bachelor of Commerce majoring in Accounting & Marketing at Curtin University.