Brad Hodge: the prolific nearly man
Why didn’t Brad Hodge play more Tests
Peter English
25-Feb-2013
Why didn’t Brad Hodge play more Tests? It is a popular question. The Age’s Greg Baum takes a look at his journey.
Hodge's career is defined by the fact that he played just six Tests. In one, he made a double century, in Perth ... He was dropped because of susceptibility to the moving ball. If held to that test now, half the Australian team would go. Hodge could not suppress a mirthless chuckle yesterday when Marcus North's name was taken, and yes, in vain.
Here is the rub. Almost every Test player needs and gets a second, third chance, even the greats, even Bradman. Except for one isolated Test against the West Indies two years later, Hodge did not. Criminally, he was also ignored when patently the world's best Twenty20 batsman. He was told to keep on making runs, and did, in all countries and competitions, sometimes 200 and 300 at a time, to no avail. Eventually, he tired of it.
Peter English is former Australasia editor of ESPNcricinfo