If Only We Had Brad Hodge
There have been few cricketers in the history of Australian cricket treated as shabbily by national selectors as Brad Hodge. Dean Jones would have claims as would Stuart Clark and Jason Gillespie but none of that trio were given such little opportunity after proving themselves at every level as Hodge. Hodge was treated as a leper by that conglomerate of fools and thieves known as the national selection panel and now in this desperate hour of need, Hodge is no longer available. Andrew Hilditch should be fired for that alone.
There is little doubt that politics played a role in the fact Hodge played only 6 Test matches for Australia. Petty personal politics. And it was Andrew Hilditch and Ricky Ponting who ostracised Hodge, keeping him out of the side when his record merited inclusion. Hodge wasn’t one of the in-crowd and he paid the price. Now the rest of us must bear the cost.