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As the first Test against Sri Lanka commences, Australian cricket captain Michael Clarke may be wishing Rodney Hogg had kept his mouth shut.
The former Australian fast bowler didn’t make any allowance for tact mid-week, when he declared online that Sri Lanka’s pace attack for the Australian series was the worst ever to arrive in this country.
Given Australia’s newly-shaped and utterly untested batting order, you would forgive Clarke for feeling nervous.
News outlets followed up the statements with Hogg who, far from tempering them, decided to expand.
“Zimbabwe [in 2003/04] had Heath Streak and he had over 150 Test wickets. They at least had a frontline fast bowler. This mob hasn’t got a No. 1 bowler. They haven’t got a No. 2 bowler.”
The comparison is tough, considering that Zimbabwean attack conceded 735 to Steve Waugh’s side in the first innings in Perth, where it fell to the sizzling offies of opening batsman Trevor Gripper to snuff out Matthew Hayden’s then-world-record 380.
Gripper aside, Streak was supported across two Tests by the modest seaming talents of Sean Ervine, Andy Blignaut, and Blessing Mahwire.
The unflattering comparison won’t have escaped the notice of the touring Sri Lankan team, and one would presume they would be affronted at Hogg’s assessment, and the prominent publicity it has received.
Admittedly their bowling averages don’t make inspiring reading. Nuwan Kulasekara and Shaminda Eranga clock low 30s, Chanaka Welegedara low 40s, Dhammika Prasad a touch under 60, and Nuwan Pradeep has the unfortunate statistical distinction of taking one wicket for 345 conceded runs.
But before resting your case, consider that the grand old men of the pace attack are Kulasekara and Welegedara with 17 and 18 Tests respectively. Prasad has played 10, while Eranga and the apparently generous Pradeep each have a tally of three.
Inexperience, it must be noted, needn’t equal a lack of ability. Just ask Patrick Cummins, or any of the six South Africans he got rid of on debut.
Admittedly most of the aforementioned Zimbabweans didn’t rack up too many Tests either, but we can attribute much of that to the banishments following Streak’s player revolt against the corrupt Zimbabwean board, and to Zimbabwe’s subsequent self-imposed exile from Test cricket.
It’s also worth factoring in that Kulasekara’s and Welegadara’s Tests were largely accrued as fill-ins, scattered over the last eight and five years respectively. Their only consistent runs at Test level have come recently, Kulasekara’s since mid-year, and Welegedara’s between mid-2011 and March 2012, when he was injured.
In the meantime, Kulasekara has crafted a strong ODI career, with 136 wickets from 126 matches. (Nor is he a slouch with the bat, as anyone who saw his devastating 73 against Australia last summer can attest.)
There’s also the small matter of Rangana Herath, the world’s leading wicket-taker over the past 12 months with 64. Given he bowls left-arm orthodox, it’s no surprise Australia’s ex-paceman didn’t bother factoring him in.
The real unknown, though, is whether Hogg’s barbs will prick the skins of the Sri Lankan bowlers. No one likes to be dismissed in such a fashion, and some righteous indignation among the touring team might inspire some dismissals of their own, on a green Hobart wicket the likes of which subcontinental seamers rarely get to enjoy.
With Australia’s new-look batting order unproved down to No. 5, the last thing the chap occupying that spot would have wanted is to provide extra motivation for a bowling side vulnerable to being overawed.
But Clarke may just find Sri Lanka taking the field with more of a point to prove, or at least a point on which to focus their energy.
And while complacency could be inspired by the idea of taking on a bunch of no-names, one thing that no-names have up their sleeve is their anonymity. When Australia’s batsmen take guard, they won’t have much idea of what to expect, especially if they end up facing rarely-sighted slinger Pradeep.
It remains to be seen whether the worst attack ever can show Hogg up to be an equally poor judge of capability. One can’t help feeling there’d be a bit of justice if they did.