Former Australian spinner Rodney Hogg is glad that his comments fuelled the West Indies to perform well on their tour Down Under. The Victorian claimed that a little bit of game time did a world of good for the Caribbean team.
On Channel 10 after the West Indies' 10-wicket loss in Adelaide, Hogg had said that weak sides shouldn't come over to play. He also predicted that Mitchell Starc would decimate the tourists with the pink ball in Brisbane.
The 73-year-old has now claimed that he turned the fortunes of West Indies' cricket, and that the longer the series went on, the better their players became. As quoted by sen.com.au, he said:
"Well, apparently, I've reinvented West Indies Test cricket. They were hopeless before I made those comments, and they've all jumped up and been motivated to play well.
"They came here with six guys that didn't have a Test cap, and they were so inexperienced, and you sort of thought, ‘Well, they are a bunch of hopeless players’, but give them some game time, a few of them showed, some real ability, didn't they? The better that the longer the two games went on, the better they got."
Following their victory in Brisbane, West Indies captain Kraigg Brathwaite said that they wanted to prove they were not 'pathetic,' as Hogg had claimed.
"What an amazing performance" - Rodney Hogg
Hogg added that he thought his prediction would come true when the tourists found themselves at 64-5 on Day 1:
"When I looked at the West Indies in that first innings in this second Test, I was having a look here, and I'm thinking to myself: 'How good was my prediction?’ They were 5/65, and Starc had three wickets … it was looking like a dead-set two-and-a-half-day game. What an amazing performance. It was fantastic to see them given an opportunity to play a second Test match against Australia."
Shamar Joseph was the chief architect of the victory, claiming seven wickets in the second innings, helping the West Indies prevail by eight runs.
Looking for fast live cricket scores? Download CricRocket and get fast score updates, top-notch commentary in-depth match stats & much more! 🚀☄️