For a bowler of immense talent and achievement and a batsman who even he'd admit has little of either, it's somewhat ironic that the defining image of Hoggy's career is a cover drive of beauty and composure in the very definition of a pressure cooker environment. His reaction to helping knock off the runs as England won the fourth Ashes Test at Trent Bridge in 2005 was typically insouciant.
He's the kind of guy who goes quietly about his business and, while never underrated, neither is he feted in the way of some of his contemporaries. And yet how he is missed when he is gone. 250 wickets at 30 apiece doesn't happen by accident and there have been moments when he has truly reached the stars - a hat-trick in Barbados in 2004 and a one-man match and series-winning 12-wicket haul in Johannesburg in 2005 spring to mind.
"Fortunately the admiration is mutual as Hoggy is particularly appreciative of the support offered by England's travelling supporters whilst on tour.."
There's no danger of the Barmy Army ever undervaluing Hoggy, whether he's taking wickets with his swing bowling on home fields or breaking his back and showing just how seam bowlers should bowl on the sub-continent. And fortunately the admiration is mutual as Hoggy is particularly appreciative of the support offered by England's travelling supporters whilst on tour.
Apparently Hoggy is the man the other players go to when they want us to turn up the support during hard times on the field, so he was the obvious choice to be our first ever Barmy Army patron and we were delighted when he agreed. 2008 is also his benefit year and we wish him all the best both on and off the field.
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