Injury ensures Brad Hodge`s Caribbean tour is over

Brad Hodge will leave the West Indies wondering if and when he will wear his baggy green cap again.

Almost a decade ago, another Australian Matthew Elliott departed the Caribbean after being rattled by a West Indies attack that still included the great Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose.

He appeared for Australia only once more as a replacement for Ricky Ponting five years later before fading away.

If, as expected, Michael Clarke and Hayden take up their familiar positions for the second Test, and Australia thanks Hodge for helping out in a crisis, he can at least leave Antigua with his head high, according to a report in The Age.

In contrast with the ugly dismissal that preceded his spectacular dumping from the Test team in 2005-06, which came three innings after a double-century against South Africa, the 33-year-old will know he contributed something substantial by helping to dig Australia out of trouble in his second-innings partnership with Andrew Symonds. Two weeks ago, when Hodge was woken up in Kolkata by a Cricket Australia phone call and told to head to Jamaica, he at least received reassurance that he had not fallen out of contention altogether and remained ahead of David Hussey in the Test pecking order.

Barring another crisis of injury or form, Hodge will probably meet his wife Meg and young son Jesse in Manchester, and play out the season with Lancashire.