Rodney Hogg reacted to West Indies captain Kraigg Braithwaite’s post-match statement that the former Australian pacer’s ‘hopeless and pathetic’ comment inspired the visitors to produce a stellar show at The Gabba.
The West Indies cricket team stunned the World Test Champions at their own den to register a thrilling 8-run triumph which was their first-ever Test win on Australian soil since 1997.
Following West Indies’ ten-wicket loss to Australia in Adelaide, Hogg made headlines after his description of the visitors’ and further said he gave them no chance of competing in Brisbane.
Hogg’s comments inspired West Indies to produce something special. Young fast-bowler Shamar Joseph brushed aside his toe injury and took a magnificent seven-wicket haul to give West Indies’ a memorable win.
“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. The fact that they were up at the Gabba, some of them had never played in a day-night game before. There’s a pink ball. They’re in front of 30,000 or 40,000 people. It’s a different experience,” said Hogg to sen.com.au.
After the win at the Gabba, West Indies captain Kraigg Braithwaite flexed his muscles and even asked Hogg whether his muscles were big enough for him. “I must say we had two words that inspired us in this Test match. Mr Rodney Hogg said we were ‘pathetic’ and ‘hopeless’, so that source was our inspiration. We wanted to show the world we’re not pathetic. And I must ask him: Are these muscles big enough for him?” Braithwaite said.
Though Hogg was dished out a humble pie following the West Indies triumph in the second Test, he felt the visitors’ got better as the two-match series progressed. “Well, apparently, I’ve reinvented West Indies Test cricket. They were hopeless before I made those comments and they’ve, 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.”
The West Indies will now play a three-match ODI series against Australia, starting at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Friday.
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