I’ve been writing a few pieces lately about 1980s Australian spinners and one of the names that keeps popping up in my research is Tom Hogan… probably best known today as “who?”

That sounds mean, but it’s also not inaccurate, because Hogan would be one of the obscurer 1980s Australian cricketers, despite playing seven Tests, 18 ODIs, and 80 first class games.

On one hand, I get it – most of his internationals were overseas, and Hogan was part of a number of Australian disasters that fans try to forget happened (the 1983 World Cup, the 1984 tour of the West Indies, the rebel cricket tours to South Africa). Fifteen Test wickets at an average of 47 doesn’t scream “unfairly overlooked” or “tantalising enigma”, either.

But it is a little unfair – because Hogan not only helped West Australia win a few Sheffield Shields, he won Australia a Test match with his bowling, helped save another two with his batting, and played a key role in winning Australia several ODIs, including a whole series in India.

It actually was a very fine career but little is known about it; researching this piece I went through some (admittedly eastern state) newspapers from the time and there was hardly anything on Hogan.

Of course, being from West Australia would’ve been a factor here but there seemed to be plenty of coverage of even less-superstar-y players like Bruce Laird, Bruce Yardley, etc – yet very little of Hogan. So, I thought it was worth reappraising a man who, for a few months at least, was Australia’s first-choice spinner.

Hogan was a player in the Ray Bright mould – which may have contributed to his obscurity as you can look at a photo of him and think he’s Bright, with a similar build and beard. Like Bright he was a solid rather than awe-inspiring spinner, but very useful fielder and lower order batter. The sort of player journalists describe with words like “tradesman-like”, “gritty”, and “warhorse”.

Hogan was born in 1956 and made his first class debut for West Australia in 1981-82, stepping in for Bruce Yardley (then on international duty) as the side’s second spinner, alongside Tony Mann.

While those incredible WA teams of the ’70s and ’80s are normally associated with pace bowlers, they usually had at least two spinners in them (the influence of Tony Lock and John Inverarity, no doubt WA became more pace-leaning in the late ’80s).

Hogan’s debut wasn’t easy, taking 0-77 against Victoria as Julian Wiener and Jeff Moss both scored double centuries – you can’t get much more “this is what life will be like for an Aussie offie” than that. But in his next game, Hogan’s 4-64 helped bowl WA to victory against Tasmania and for his third he took six wickets and scored 70.

Such players are very, very useful in Shield cricket and Hogan had a solid debut season with 20 first class wickets at 36.75. His 25 runs off 21 balls also helped WA win a narrow run chase in a McDonalds Cup match (remember them?) against Victoria.

Hogan’s sophomore summer was even better, taking 35 first class wickets at 26.82, including nine wickets and 72 not out in a game against NSW, and eight wickets against Queensland. This saw him come to the attention of national selectors who, while they never seemed that enthusiastic about spin, realised that the team usually needed one or two.

(Steven Paston – EMPICS/Getty Images)

Hogan was picked to make his ODI debut against New Zealand (despite having only played three List A matches to date), taking a respectable 2-42 in an embarrassing Australian defeat.

Hogan was given the second spinner spot on the 1983 tour of Sri Lanka, in support of Bruce Yardley. Australia often stopped off on that island on the way to England but this was the first time we played them in an official Test. Hogan and Yardley bowled Australia to an innings victory – Hogan taking 5-66 in the second dig.

He also played three ODIs, doing particularly well in the first (3-27), badly in the second. If these games had happened at home and/or were televised here, Hogan would be far better remembered today. An AAP report on the first Test said “The 27-year-old left-armer proved a valuable foil for Yardley and gave notice he will be on the Test cricket scene for some years yet.”

The selectors picked Hogan as the spinner in the 1983 World Cup squad over Yardley in what was called a “hairline decision”. Yardley was unfairly tarnished as a chucker, which reportedly contributed to him being overlooked for tours to England in 1980 and 1981 as well as 1983. Yardley then quit international cricket, meaning Hogan was now, technically, the No.1 spinner in Australia after only two seasons of first class cricket.

Indeed, we were so high on Hogan that he was chosen over Dennis Lillee for a match in the 1983 World Cup.

This campaign of course became a legendary disaster, marred by unnecessary losses to Zimbabwe and India, South African officials trying to recruit Australian players, and Marsh and Lillee leading a faction hostile to captain Kim Hughes (as a West Australian Hogan was presumably right at the epicentre of that, but I like to imagine he just kept to himself).

Hogan bowled tidily in the ODIs, taking six wickets at 28.66 with an economy rate of 3.65 – he really pioneered that “solid miserly ODI off-spinner” role later played with such effectiveness by Peter Taylor.

Back home, Hogan was picked in the Test 12 for the first two Tests against Pakistan in 1983-84, but Australia went for an all-pace attack, meaning he didn’t get his chance until the third (and only because Carl Rackemann was injured), going for 1-107 in a draw.

Australia went off Hogan a little after that, replacing him in the fourth Test with Greg Matthews and Murray Bennett, who didn’t play but was in the squad, indicating the selectors were keeping their spinning options open.

Hogan took a decent 26 first class wickets at 33.11 over the 1983-84 season, was recalled to the ODI side towards the end of the summer and did well, and his selection on the 1984 tour to West Indies was generally uncontroversial, despite some Murray Bennett partisans; he and Matthews were the only spinners, though in hindsight one of them should have made way for Bob Holland.

Hogan shot ahead of Matthews with 5-94 against Guyana in a tour game (figures that would have been even better if not for dropped catches from stand in keeper Wayne Phillips) and he was picked in the side for the first Test.

Hogan had a terrific match, taking part in a legendary batting partnership with Rodney Hogg, which rescued Australia from 9-182 to 279 with Hogan not out 42.

He then took 4-56 as the West Indies were all out for 230 and we had a chance to win but our batters couldn’t drive it home (Hogan’s second innings 18 beat the efforts of four specialist batters) and when Greenidge and Haynes started tonking Australia around we were lucky to escape with a draw (Hogan 0-74 off 19 overs).

Hogan won the man of the match, something not very well known (I didn’t realise it until researching this piece). He had now played key roles in both his Tests – but would never hit those heights again.

Hogan was selected in all remaining Tests for that series. He struggled, like all the Australian bowlers, although his batting again proved important: in the second Test his second innings of 38 helped Allan Border save the game, and in the third his first innings of 40 helped put Australia in a rare match winning position.

He took eight Test wickets over the series at an average of 60, his next best performance after the first one being 2-68 in the fifth Test – but Wisden said “his series figures hid the excellent work he did bowling long spells on generally unresponsive wickets”. All up, Hogan took 22 first class wickets on the tour at 39 – Australia’s best bowler after John Maguire.

A hypothetical for this series: what if Hogan had been able to bowl in tandem with, say, Bob Holland under the captaincy and keeping of Rod Marsh instead of Kim Hughes and Wayne Phillips? Look, it would’ve still been tough but I like to think Australia could’ve won a Test or two. We had a genuine chance to win the first and third Test of that series.

Hogan was part of the 1984 ODI tour of India (Bennett being the second spinner). This was sole overseas triumph of Kim Hughes’ captaincy career, with Australia winning 3-0, due a great deal to some solid bowling by Hogan who took nine wickets at 13. But, again, like the Sri Lanka Test and the first Test against the West Indies, it wasn’t televised at home so few people remember it.

Hogan was still very much at the forefront of Australia’s spinning plans (such as they were) as the 1984-85 summer began, Peter McFarline writing that Hogan “will be almost certainly in the side before the series is too old.” However, it didn’t pan out that way.

Australia went for an all-pace attack for the first Test – a mistake in hindsight, as Hogan’s bowling on his home ground would have been useful. Then just prior to the second Test, Bob Holland and Murray Bennett bowled NSW to victory against the West Indies and were thrust into the Test team.

Hogan became, almost overnight, yesterday’s man, and his form that summer wouldn’t change that. He took 26 first class wickets, which wasn’t bad, at 51.26. Australia’s spinners on the 1985 Ashes squad were Holland, Bennett and Matthews.

At some point over the summer (I’m unsure when), Hogan decided to accept Bruce Francis’ offer to tour South Africa on a “rebel” tour, presumably attracted by the money, adventure and guaranteed selection over two seasons. The second spinner in that squad, incidentally, was to be Bennett, who signed, but then changed his mind, and was replaced by Trevor Hohns; Greg Matthews turned down an offer to go, Bob Holland was never approached.

The rebels were banned from Test cricket for three years and Shield cricket for two, neither of which was that long. Kim Hughes predicted Hogan would be one of a number of South African tourists who would become a key player for Australia once they returned from the ban (others being Steve Smith, Mike Haysman, Rod McCurdy and Peter Faulkner – none of whom played for Australia again).

One might think Hogan would thrive in South Africa, with its pitches not dissimilar to Australia, and he certainly started very well, scoring 74 off 77 balls in a tour game against Transvaal Country and making 63 and taking 8–89 against Eastern Province.

However, then he found things harder and only took 16 first class wickets over 1985-86 at 38.6. He did bowl better in the one-dayers, his 3-25 in one game helping the Australian XI to a rare win. Things went even worse on his second trip, Hogan taking 10 first class wickets in 1986-87 at 39.4, being replaced as first-choice spinner by Trevor Hohns, who had a marvellous second tour (33 wickets at 25).

I wonder how Hogan would’ve done if he’d stayed in Australia – could there have been a Ray Bright-style recall in 1985-86, leading to some triumphs at the SCG and in India? Who knows?

Incidentally the main WA spinners in the absence of Hogan were English Test player Vic Marks (who was a key factor in their Shield win in 1986-87), Giles Bush, and Stephen Milosz, who died recently.

Anyway, Hogan was reintegrated into the West Australian side on his return – out of all the state sides, Queenslanders and Sandgropers were generally the most accepting of the South African tourists.

He didn’t get back straight into the side – West Australia were very strong – but he was picked towards the end of 1987-88 summer, taking 6-57 against Tasmania and playing a small but significant part in helping the state win another Shield.

Hogan never quite recaptured his earlier form overall but he played for WA until 1990-81, winning yet another Shield in 1988-89 (those Sandgropers really hogged that trophy in the ’80s), and even scoring a first class century against Victoria.

Australia didn’t land on a “definite selection” spinner until Shane Warne in 1993 (it was the era of swapping between Peter Taylor, Matthews, Peter Sleep and Tim May, with a bit of Hohns thrown in), and Hogan’s name was mentioned in various columns as a possibility for a national recall – for instance both Greg Chappell and Richie Benaud had Hogan in their hypothetical squads for England in 1989. It didn’t happen.

I don’t know much about what Hogan has done since he stopped playing first class cricket apart from the fact he continued in club games, assisting Scarborough to a premiership in 1994-95 (apparently he took 437 wickets for Scarborough), and serving as a West Australian selector in the 2000s.

I hope he’s happy and well and looks back on his career with great fondness because there were some marvellous moments there. I can’t say he was an overlooked spinner of the 1980s but he’s definitely one who should be better remembered.