Praise for the floppy-haired farmer
Will
25-Feb-2013
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Andrew Strauss heaps praise on his England team-mate Matthew Hoggard who, he feels, doesn't receive the recognition he deserves.
Behind his slightly dopey, 'Farmer Giles' exterior, is a surprisingly sharp mind. He doesn't like people knowing that he has three high-grade A-levels to his name and it is only when he is extremely bored and asks questions like "Is a vacuum really a vacuum?" and "Why is suction called suction?" that you realise that one of those A-levels is in chemistry. I am not sure if it would ruin his street cred up on the Yorkshire moors if he admitted to being clever, but in his intellect, rather like his bowling, he prefers to be under-estimated. In fact, in the England team there is an unwritten rule that none of us should ever talk to Matthew before 10am.
Even the most good- natured of comments is likely to be met with a Neanderthal-like grunt in reply that would not suggest there was anything behind his dopey exterior whatsoever. Thankfully, he uses his mind a little more productively out in the middle.
Read the full story at The Sunday Telegraph