Rodney Hogg recalls fiery Pakistan-Australia 1979 Test 40 years after controversial Javed Miandad run out
Four decades after he infamously smashed the MCG stumps after a controversial run out, Rodney Hogg relives the fiery 1979 Test series between Australia and Pakistan.
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The two-Test series against Pakistan revives 40-year-old memories of one of the most vicious months in Australian cricket history.
It was March 1979, when Mushtaq Mohammad and his Pakistan team of superstars toured Australia, a squad that included Imran Khan, Zaheer Abbas, Javed Miandad, Asif Iqbal, Sarfraz Bari, Wasim Bari, Sarfraz Nawaz and Mudassar Nazar.
It was an ill-tempered series and featured Sarfraz successfully appealing for handling the ball after Australian opening batsman Andrew Hilditch picked up a return throw and handed the ball to the Pakistan seamer.
The Australians drew the series 1-1, an excellent result given the home side was still reeling from World Series defections. As such, they were given little hope of being competitive against the Pakistanis, as opening bowler Rodney Hogg recalled this week.
JA: Forty years on, yet the memories are sharp of a two-Test series that was marred by some extraordinary behaviour, beginning in Australia’s first innings of the first Test at the MCG when a batsman smashed his stumps.
RH: Are you referring to me?
JA: Given you were the only Australian to smash his stumps with his bat, the answer is yes.
RH: I was a victim of circumstances. I was actually batting beautifully (nine off 13 balls) and after playing a classical defensive shot, walked down the pitch and started gardening, because I had seen the Chappell brothers doing it and thought I would copy them. That little rat, Javed Miandad, snuck around behind me, removed the bails and appealed to umpire Mick Harvey, who was the brother of Neil. He gave me out.
JA: Fair enough, given the ball was still alive and you were stupid enough in trying to pretend you were a batsman by carrying on with that gardening rubbish. What happened next?
RH: I had to walk off the ground, until their captain Mushtaq Mohammad kindly asked me back, just as I had got to the fence. So I walked all the way back, only for umpire Harvey to say his decision couldn’t be overruled. That’s when I smashed the stumps, before walking all the way off again.
JA: How long were you suspended and how much was the fine?
RH: I played the next Test in Perth, there was no fine, and nobody in authority spoke to me about it.
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JA: If only the Australian Cricket Board had displayed some backbone, then we may have been spared the childish antics that saw a bucket of water thrown from the sixth floor of a hotel in Perth on to Imran Khan and Javed as they walked out to dinner, a week later before the second Test.
RH: That did happen, but as to who did it, I will borrow a Jack Dyer quote which runs along the lines of “I’m not going to say anything in case I say something”.