Bradge Hodge by CricketArchive Staff Reporter

---

Player:

BJ Hodge

---

DateLine: 18th April 2009

 

Brad Hodge is still pushing hard to avoid becoming an Australian cricket nearly man. When he was dropped with an average of 58.42 only five matches into his Test career in 2005-06 it would have been easy for him to disappear back into the first-class ranks he has dominated for most of his career.

 

In 2006-07 he smashed 765 Pura Cup runs at 85.00 to force himself into the one-day side when Ricky Ponting rested, but two failures put him in danger of immediate demotion until Andrew Symonds suffered an arm injury. His unfortunate streak remained only in that he was stranded on 99 not out when he hit the winning runs against New Zealand and was then one hefty shot out of reach when he posted an unbeaten 97 in the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy. The performances earned him a spot at the World Cup and he finally grabbed three figures with 123 off 89 balls against the Netherlands. It was his last bat in the tournament and he watched the final from the dressing room, which has become an all-too familiar viewing platform.

 

A regular and consistent performer for his state and counties, Hodge's Victorian debut came in 1993-94 as an 18-year-old and he almost compiled 1000 runs in the season as he settled quickly at No. 4. Around consistently impressive one-day returns, Hodge passed the 1000 barrier in the 2000-01 first-class summer when he was a key player in the Bushrangers' march to a second successive Pura Cup final. More of the same output was revealed in 2001-02, when he shared the domestic Player-of-the-Season award with Queensland's Jimmy Maher, and his consistency pushed him towards international honours. After a brief spell with Durham in 2002, Hodge spent two productive summers at Leicestershire, leading them to a domestic one-day trophy in 2004 and making the county's highest individual score of 302 not out against Nottinghamshire the season before, but moved to Lancashire in 2005. Rewarded with his first Cricket Australia contract in 2004, he was picked for the India tour and considered for the opening Test, but narrowly missed a place taken spectacularly by Clarke.