They say that when policemen start looking young, you know you’re getting old. I have another analogy – when your sporting heroes retire.
I expect Jonny Wilkinson and Jenson Button to do exactly that before too long and today, another of the sportsmen I always enjoyed watching brought down the curtain on his career (or at least set the date for it) in Matthew Hoggard.
When I spoke to him earlier today, it was interesting that the first three career highlights he rattled off were the same three I’d written down: The Ashes 2005, the hat-trick in Barbados in 2004 and the six for 71 in Johannesburg in 2005.
He didn’t seem too taken with my story about how I’d been following the Johannesburg match in France and my colleagues had no idea what I was getting excited about. Doesn’t matter. That he continued to reel off performances issued a reminder that he was an outstanding performer.
He was part of a battery of fast bowlers that helped England win eight matches in a row in 2004/5 and famously reclaim the Ashes. I remember the swinging delivery that bowled Matthew Hayden on the opening day and a spell he bowled in 2002 that had even Rahul Dravid struggling to lay a bat on him.
On his day, he was that good. 786 first-class wickets starts to tell the story.
Yet he never really made it as an ODI cricketer. Never even played a Twenty20 International. He had been jettisoned in favour of James Anderson and Stuart Broad by the time that Twenty20 really took off and unlike Steve Harmison, there was to be no way back to international cricket for him.
Nevertheless, he still managed to pick up a Twenty20 Cup winners medal with Leicestershire in 2011. I have a feeling he has made more of an impact at Grace Road than he lets on.
One of my very first interviews as a journalist was with Ashley Giles – another Ashes 2005 hero. Like Hoggard, he was cagey when I asked him what he had lined up following retirement. As we now know, he went into coaching, and now leads England’s ODI team having enjoyed success with Warwickshire.
Will Hoggard go down the same road? Who knows, but I wished him well with his future once the interview had finished. And I meant it.
They say you should never meet your heroes, in case they disappoint you. I don’t think I agree with that. Just try to prepare your questions with a bit more care than I had time to.