Kyle in exalted company

Kyle Hogg: MCC squad

Cricket:

A CHANCE to play alongside a handful of the world’s best cricketers awaits Kyle Hogg next month.

The 30-year-old former Greenfield seam bowler is in the MCC squad to face Durham in the annual curtain-raiser to the four-day season in Abu Dhabi.

The Champion County match will see Hogg alongside Indian batting legend and captain Virender Sehwag, wicketkeeper Prasanna Jayawardene from Sri Lanka and England duo Monty Panesar and Samit Patel.

Sri Lankan great Muttiah Muralitharan will lead the MCC group in the proceeding Emirates T20 tournament, which also features Durham, Sussex, a Fly Emirates XI and Lancashire.

Hogg said: “I had an inkling just before Christmas, but now that the news has been confirmed it is a great honour. MCC teams of the past have featured probably one or two Test players, but this time you’ve got the likes of Sehwag, Murali and Jayawardene in there.

“I played with Murali at Lancashire a few years ago and I was on the same England under-19s tour to India as Monty Panesar. It’s a big opportunity for me in a high-profile game and if I do well it will set me up for the season.

Hogg will already be in that part of the world with his Lancashire team-mates — they fly in the middle of next month — for the Twenty20 competition.