Kyle’s inspiration

HAPPY DAYS: Lancashire all-rounder Kyle Hogg celebrates a wicket against Warwickshire.

CRICKET: SEVERAL weeks spent helping friend and Lancashire fan Graham Lambert, who formed alternative Oldham rock band Inspiral Carpets in the 1980s, changed Kyle Hogg’s outlook on cricket forever.

“Sometimes you can take things for granted,” said the 28-year-old all-rounder.

“It was hard work in a tough environment. I suppose you could say I had a taste of the real world.”

Providing assistance to concert promoters SJM last winter gave Hogg the “mental jolt” he needed in his 11th professional year at Old Trafford.

Fifty wickets later — his best haul in a season by far — the tall seamer more than played his part in Lancashire’s first outright County Championship title since 1934.

It still hasn’t quite sunk in yet for Hogg, whose previous taste of silverware was playing for Greenfield when they won the Saddleworth and District Cricket League 11 years ago.

And when he reels off the legends of cricket which pulled on the Red Rose sweater but never celebrated success in the domestic game’s premier competition, you can understand why.

“The likes of Flintoff, Atherton and Murali never won it, whereas a bunch of players who grew up together and came through the ranks, like Steven Croft, Paul Horton, Luke Procter and Karl Brown, have,” said Hogg.

“It’s a bit like a football team full of superstars. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t.

“In the past at Lancashire, if you weren’t playing and somebody failed with the bat or the ball, you kind of thought to yourself ‘I may get a chance in the next game’.

“It’s not like that anymore. We’re all willing each other on, even those players who have missed out on selection. We all want the next man to get a century or take five wickets.”

Hogg is fulsome in his praise of coach Peter Moores, who moulded Lancashire’s unlikely lads into lauded champions when, at the start of the season, they were many people’s favourites for relegation.

“I think Peter was close to shedding a tear after he won it,” he explained.

“He’s man with international experience with England and he could have come into the job slightly half-hearted, but he has thrown everything into it.

“No-one can match the man’s enthusiasm for cricket. Every one of the lads were probably more chuffed for him than ourselves. He’s a great bloke.”

Looking back on the amazing events in Taunton, Hogg admitted he only thought Lancashire had a “small chance” of snatching the title.

With already-relegated Hampshire three wickets down and following on against leaders Warwickshire, Glen Chapple’s side faced a near impossible task on the final day.

“The Lancashire supporters kept shouting to us that Hampshire were still batting,” said Hogg.

“But every run Somerset scored meant we needed one more run and had one less over to get them in.

“Then Gary Keedy got that run out and we had a target to chase.”

He went on: “I must admit I didn’t see any of it, until we needed 10 to win.

“I was sat in the back of the dressing room listening to my ipod.

“Cricketers are a bit of a superstitious bunch. We stayed in our same places and only moved between overs. Then, when we got the winning runs, it was complete bedlam.”