Matthew Hoggard

 ( 1976 Births ) 

In the 4th Test cricket of the series in South Africa in January 2005 Hoggard took 12 wickets for 205. Of Englishmen, only Johnny Wardle, who took 12 for 89 in Cape Town in 1956–57, has bettered his figures in South Africa since World War II. His match figures were England's best anywhere since Ian Botham's 13 for 106 against India in 1979–80. During the 2005 Ashes series, Hoggard scored 8 not out with Ashley Giles against Australia in the fourth Test at Trent Bridge in the 2005 Ashes series, which included a well-executed cover drive for four off a Brett Lee full toss, as England won by three wickets by reaching 129 to take a 2–1 series lead.

During the Second Ashes Test at Adelaide Oval in December 2006, Hoggard took 8 wickets in the match, with first innings figures of 7/109, in very unfavourable bowling and especially swing bowling conditions, though England still lost. Hoggard missed the fifth test in Sydney with a side-strain. It ended a run of 40 consecutive tests. "Fifth Test, day one as it happened", BBC News retrieved 27 November 2007 As of July 2007, Hoggard was sixth in the list of all-time English Test wicket-takers with 240 from 64 matches.

After a disappointing performance where England lost the first test, Hoggard was dropped (along with longtime bowling partner, Steve Harmison) for the second test.

He said on 18 July 2008 on BBC Radio 5 Live's Test Match Special programme that he believed he would not play for England again after being left out of the Test squads against both New Zealand and South Africa.

Hoggard was considered a scapegoat for his sudden falling out of favour from the England and Wales Cricket Board. "We've had the same problems with the ECB since I started international cricket," he wrote in his book. "There were people slagging them off when I first came in and there are people still slagging them off. And it's not the ECB who pick the side anyway. See if you can find a player with a good word to say about the ECB. What are they going to do, sue me for telling the truth?"Quoted in The Old Batsman 2009.

Hoggard was released by Yorkshire at the end of the 2009 season and immediately linked with an unexpected move to Leicestershire. Hoggard was announced as the new captain of Leicestershire on 9 November.

He is now an assistant coach for the women's T20 cricket team Loughborough Lightning. He also works as an after dinner speaker and cricket pundit.

In August 2013, Hoggard featured as a contestant on Celebrity Masterchef. In January 2020, Hoggard joined sports travel company Venatour as their Cricket Ambassador for their upcoming cricket tours.

In November 2021, Hoggard was alleged to have made racist comments - which included things such as 'elephant washers' and 'you lot sit over there' - towards Azeem Rafiq and other players of Asian heritage during his time at Yorkshire at the DCMS select committee hearing on 16 November 2021. It is understood that Hoggard apologised to Rafiq over the phone.

In a 2015 analysis, statistician Andrew Samson calculated that Hoggard was England's best bowler, in terms of the batting average of the batsmen he dismissed in his career.