5 Veterans who have dazzled the BBL

The failure of the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the first edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) with the squad consisting of veterans like Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Jacques Kallis and Rahul Dravid led to the misconception that T20 cricket is a young man’s game only. Franchises have slowly realised their folly over the years after experienced cricketers like Kallis, Brad Hodge proved their mettle emerging as top performers in the shorter format of the game.

Even the Big Bash League (BBL) has witnessed the dominance of several veterans who have stamped their authority proving that age is but a number and class is matchless. Let’s take a look at 5 such veterans who have dazzled in the BBL:

1. Brad Hogg

The 46-year-old who has been nicknamed as the “smiling assassin” because of his broad smile, flipper and wrong ones which deceive the batsmen to no end has been amongst the overall leading wicket-takers over the years in the BBL for the Perth Scorchers and Melbourne Renegades.

The Scorchers were extremely reluctant to let him go and tried to change his mind which is further testimony to how impactful he was for them with coach Justin Langer’s comments certainly indicating his disappointment: “Yeah, very disappointing.”

Perth coach said:

“I’m really disappointed about that. What can I say? I’m personally disappointed, professionally disappointed, but it’s his decision and life goes on. In my opinion, he’s made the wrong decision, that’s okay, that’s not my business. But I can go to bed at night knowing we offered him more money than we offered him last year, we think we’ve had a good deal with him for the last few years and it could have been a real win-win situation for him and us.”

Having recently expressed the desire to play until the age of 50, Hogg’s fitness and performance levels can put many youngsters to shame.