In this week’s Hogg Blog, Matthew Hoggard talks about the banter he received from Lancashire fans, the importance of game-changing players and getting hit for the first-ever eight by John Crawley.
Big guns are out in the War of the Roses
If my body was still right the one game I want to play in more than any other would be Friday night’s Roses game between Yorkshire and Lancashire at Headingley.
It’s an absolute sell-out and you always want to play in front of as many people as you can.
A Roses clash is the closest you can get to recreating the kind of pressure you’ll experience in a Test match or a one-day final. I wanted to pull on the Three Lions as often as possible and when playing for England the pressure was on whether you were playing in front of a packed house like during the 2005 Ashes series, or in front of a couple of thousand on the fifth day when a draw was looming.
Playing Lancashire was just as intense. There’s always a great atmosphere and some banter with the travelling support because the two counties are right next to each other. My relationship with Lancashire’s fans changed over the years and it was no coincidence that this happened after I started playing for England.
When I first started playing for Yorkshire they’d give me some grief but after a while they’d say, 'Ok, we like what you’re doing for England so we’ll give you some friendlier 'banter'.
I was the sort of player who never really reacted to the crowd and I didn’t get sledged a lot because I didn’t give a lot out. I don’t think any player actually relishes it but I can remember Jason Gillespie getting a lot of stick about his caravan and Anthony McGrath seemed to be targeted as well.
How you deal with it is an important life lesson but you’d never get the kind of abuse a footballer might take. It’s a more intelligent kind of crowd (did I just say that?) and it’s more personal so you can interact with the crowd between deliveries and try to get them on your side.
I have a terrible memory for the games I played in but one thing that does stick in my mind is when I bowled the first ever eight-run delivery. It was a no-ball and if that wasn’t bad enough John Crawley top-edged it over the keeper for a six!
Most of the focus for this game will be on Aaron Finch and Junaid Khan. You want the international stars to perform and Aaron is the kind-of game-changing player who can score 150 in 20 overs and win a match on his own. Meanwhile Junaid has been terrorising batsmen with his sheer pace.
Perhaps the most exciting thing about Friday is that it’s going to be such a high-quality game because all 22 players are excellent cricketers. Yorkshire have got people like Ryan Sidebottom and Jack Brooks who are fantastic players, whereas Lancashire have Steven Croft and Jos Buttler - both match-winners on current form.
I think we could be in for something special at Headingley.
Worcestershire's Rapid rise is no surprise
Worcestershire fans have every right to feel pleased with the way their team is playing at the moment and the rest of the country shouldn’t be too surprised that they’re top of the North Group because they’ve been performing well for a couple of seasons now.
They don’t have massive stars at New Road but they’ve got game-changers who are all performing. It starts from Daryl Mitchell at the top of the order. He leads by example. The rest of them all know what they’re doing, they’re working well together and they’ve got that belief you need. Pakistan international Saeed Ajmal is a fine quality bowler. Their ace in the pack. I only faced two balls from him in my T20 career but managed to score 10 which meant I had a strike rate of 500. Maybe some of these batsmen should come and ask me for some tips!
There are times when it can be an advantage to be playing for one of the so-called smaller clubs. At Yorkshire you’re playing for the biggest county with the biggest membership and there is a level of expectation to deal with. At Leicestershire I found there was a little more freedom, because if we didn’t win against the bigger sides people would say we weren’t expected to.
Despite that Leicestershire have won the Twenty20 trophy three times, more than any other county, and I was lucky enough to be captain for one of those. If we had a secret that year it was in the way we gave people specific roles. Andrew McDonald was the player-of-the-tournament but everyone knew exactly what they had to do and we’d change the batting order depending on the match situation. We had someone who’d go in if we needed 10 an over, someone if we needed 15 an over and some if we needed a run-a-ball.
We also had Abdul Razzaq. For one game he literally stepped off a plane, got into a car, drove to the ground and slapped it about everywhere. You’ve got to have one person who can take the game away from the opposition - we had several.
The Rapids are the same. It wouldn't surprise me at all if they were there on Finals Day.
Hoggy's Top Three
My top performers of last week are:
1. Riki Wessels (Notts Outlaws). Scores of 66 and a career-best 95 in the Blast last week. He's absolutely leathering it.
2. Saeed Ajmal (Worcestershire Rapids). The wily old spinner conceded just 10 runs in his four overs versus Birmingham Bears. That's Test match stuff.
3. Junaid Khan (Lancashire Lightning). Took 3-16 against Northants Steelbacks. Toe-breakers galore. Horrible to bat against.