Brad Hodge

Squad Number -

Player Sponsor -

Born - December 29, 1974, Sandringham, Victoria

Joined - Leicestershire 2003 initially, rejoined 2010.

Role - Right hand middle-order/opening batsman, Right arm off-breaks

Family -

Teams Represented - Australia, Victoria, Durham, Leicestershire, Lancashire, Kolkata Knight Riders

Honours - Held Leicestershire's highest-ever total when making 302* v Notts

Highlights of Career - Test debut, Winning Twenty20 with Leics

Players Admired -

Relaxations -

Australian batsman Brad Hodge makes a welcome to Leicestershire CCC for the Friends Provident Twenty20 Cup in the 2010 season.

The player was a firm favourite during two extremely successful seasons in 2003 and 2004.

The prolific batsman guided the side to a Twenty20 final win against Surrey Lions at Edgbaston in 2004; making a fabulous unbeaten 77. His partnership with Jeremy Snape was critical to the outcome.

He also scored 524 runs in 13 T20 matches in his time here at an average of 43.66. Hodge’s useful off-breaks and safe hands in the field made him an incredible asset in the shortest format of the game.

He is also awesome in the longer form of the game and has gained test caps for his country. Hodge may well have played more had his peak form not come at a time where the Australia side had an incredibly strong middle-order.

Indeed, a test match average of 55.88 with a best score of 203* suggests he deserved to play a lot more than the six test matches he was given.

Unfortunately, like a number of excellent batsmen around during that era, Hodge never got a full opportunity to shine. He also averaged above 30 in ODIs and T20Is to demonstrate his talents across the board.

Hodge notched 3043 runs in 51 first-class knocks in his first spell at Leicestershire at an outstanding average of 62.10.

The batter also held the club record score at one point following a brilliant unbeaten 302 against Notts at Trent Bridge.

A partnership with Darren Maddy against Loughborough UCCE remains the highest first-class record for any wicket for Leicestershire. The duo shared a staggering 436 for the third wicket.

Hodge is also one of only nine batsman to have scored a century in each innings of a game for Leicestershire (there have been eleven instances altogether, with Maurice Hallam achieving the feat three times).

He scored more than 1,000 runs in both seasons in first-class cricket and hit ten tons along the way.

Hodge was also renowned for scoring big and converted four of those centuries into double hundreds and once made a tremendous triple century as aforementioned.

The batsman has been just as good in Australian domestic cricket and has scored heavily for Victoria in all formats.

Hodge also participated in the inaugural Champions League Twenty20 side and got to the semi-final alongside new Leicestershire colleague Andrew McDonald.

A popular guy and outstanding all-round cricketer, Hodge’s quality and experience will be vital to Leicestershire in Twenty20 cricket and we all look forward to seeing him playing at Grace Road again.

BJ Hodge 2009 (76.71 kB)