Peter Hatzoglou (born 27 November 1998) is an Australian

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er and chartered financial analyst. Hatzoglou was born to a Greek father, with a family originating from

Kozani Kozani ( el, Κοζάνη, ) is a city in northern Greece, capital of Kozani (regional unit), Kozani regional unit and of Western Macedonia. It is located in the western part of Macedonia (Greece), Macedonia, in the northern part of the Aliakmona ...

in Greece, and a mother from

North Macedonia North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Socialist Feder ...

He is known for his idiosyncratic bowling action, ability to bowl

topspinner A topspinner is a type of delivery bowled by a cricketer bowling either wrist spin or finger spin. In either case, the bowler imparts the ball with top spin by twisting it with his or her fingers prior to delivery. In both cases, the topspinner is ...

s, sliders and

googlies In the game of cricket, a googly refers to a type of delivery bowled by a right-arm leg spin bowler. It is different from the normal delivery for a leg-spin bowler in that it is turning the other way. The googly is ''not'' a variation of the ...

as well as the ability to bowl from a high release point at high pace.

Career

He was only playing at local level by the age of 18 and had never appeared in a state cricket age-group team by that time. In 2016, after completing his exams, he joined the Sunshine Heights Cricket Club in Victoria and became club treasurer. He later represented Melbourne University Cricket Cub in 2017 in a third-grade premier cricket tournament. He first appeared in any form of club cricket match in the UK was way back in 2019 when he played for Ashton-on-Mercy Cricket Club as an overseas player in the fourth division of the Cheshire County Cricket League. He ended up the 2019 Cheshire Cricket League by grabbing 41 scalps at incredible bowling average of 18.39. He also toured UK with the Australian Universities XI for a cricket tour in the UK in 2019. It was former Australian cricketer

Cameron White Cameron Leon White (born 18 August 1983) is an Australian former international cricketer who captained the national side in Twenty20 Internationals. A powerful middle order batsman and right-arm leg-spin bowler, White made his first-class cric ...

who strongly pushed for Hatzoglou's selection after watching him play during a Victorian Premier cricket match in 2019. He also played for South Australian Premier Cricket team Prospect. In December 2020, Hatzoglou signed with the

Melbourne Renegades The Melbourne Renegades are an Australian professional men's Twenty20 franchise cricket club based in Melbourne, the capital city of the Australian state of Victoria. They compete in the Australian Twenty20 cricket competition, the Big Bash ...

. He found his way into the first XI of Melbourne Renegades squad as a local replacement player for

Will Sutherland Will Sutherland (born 27 October 1999) is an Australian cricketer. He made his List A debut for Cricket Australia XI against Pakistanis during their tour of Australia on 10 January 2017. In July 2017, he took a multi-year deal with Victoria, r ...

with the latter having withdrawn from the

2020–21 Big Bash League season The 2020–21 Big Bash League season or BBL, 10 was the tenth season of the Big Bash League, the professional men's Twenty20 domestic cricket competition in Australia, with 61 matches played. On 15 July 2020, Cricket Australia confirmed the fix ...

after being named in Australian A squad against touring Indian test squad during that summer. He received a phone call from Melbourne Renegades coach

Michael Klinger Michael Klinger (born 4 July 1980) is an Australian former first-class cricketer, who held the record for the most runs scored in the Big Bash League when he retired in 2019. Until the 2008–09 season, Klinger played for Victoria and for St ...

in order to get a confirmation on whether he could join the team as a local replacement player. Before his surprise call-up, he was pursuing degrees in both

finance Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fina ...

and

international relations International relations (IR), sometimes referred to as international studies and international affairs, is the scientific study of interactions between sovereign states. In a broader sense, it concerns all activities between states—such as ...

as well as working as a data analyst for the financial services firm,

KPMG KPMG International Limited (or simply KPMG) is a multinational professional services network, and one of the Big Four accounting organizations. Headquartered in Amstelveen, Netherlands, although incorporated in London, England, KPMG is a net ...

. He made his

Twenty20 Twenty20 (T20) is a shortened game format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two teams have a single innin ...

debut on 12 December 2020, taking two wickets. He made rapid strides from playing in third-grade premier cricket competitions to top-tier professional cricket competitions within a space of two and half years with a big breakthrough coming at the

Big Bash League The Big Bash League (known as the KFC Big Bash League for sponsorship reasons, often abbreviated to BBL or Big Bash) is an Australian professional club Twenty20 cricket league, which was established in 2011 by Cricket Australia. The Big Bash Le ...

. After a successful maiden Big Bash League season, Hatzoglou was called into the

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

squad for the 2020–21 Marsh One-Day Cup, where he made his

List A List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competitions in which the numbe ...

debut against

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

on 2 March 2021. In July 2021, he signed a two-year deal with the

Perth Scorchers The Perth Scorchers is an Australian domestic Twenty20 franchise cricket team representing the Western Australian city of Perth in the Big Bash League (BBL). The Scorchers are the current BBL Champions, having defeated the Sydney Sixers in the ...

. It was revealed that he was advised by former veteran Australian leg spinner

Shane Warne Shane Keith Warne (13 September 1969 – 4 March 2022) was an Australian international cricketer, whose career ran from 1991 to 2007. Warne played as a right-arm leg spin bowler and a right-handed batsman for Victoria, Hampshire and Australia ...

to spend the Australian winter season by playing club cricket in the UK in order to be in contention for a contract in The Hundred with the

London Spirit London Spirit are a franchise 100-ball cricket side based in North London. The team represents the historic counties of Middlesex, Essex and Northamptonshire in The Hundred, which took place for the first time during the 2021 English and Wel ...

side for which Warne served as its head coach. Hatzoglou had messaged Warne in an

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

chat to seek ideas and advice during the middle of a

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

induced lockdown in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

in July 2021. Following his successful BBL stint with Perth Scorchers, he returned to his KPMG office and discussed his plans with two of the firm's partners and made the decision to fly to the UK. He quit his job at KPMG with the intention of pursuing his club cricket career in the UK. He headed for Sawston and Babraham Cricket Club in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

and emerged as the highest wicket-taker in the East Anglian Premier League. He also arranged a number of stints with various county clubs as a net bowler to gain and garner some attention but much to his disappointment, he was ignored by the counties. In August 2022,

Oval Invincibles Oval Invincibles is a franchise 100-ball cricket side based in South London. The team represents the historic counties of Surrey and Kent in the newly founded The Hundred competition, which took place for the first time during the 2021 Engl ...

offered him a short-term contract as a replacement player for

Sunil Narine Sunil Philip Narine (born 26 May 1988) is a Trinidadian cricketer who plays internationally for the West Indies. He made his One Day International (ODI) debut in December 2011 and Test match debut in June 2012. Primarily an off-spin bowler, he ...

during the

2022 season of The Hundred The 2022 season of The Hundred will be the second season of The Hundred, a professional franchise 100-ball cricket tournament involving eight men's and women's teams located in major cities across England and Wales. The competition will return ...

with the latter decided to opt out of the final stages of the tournament in order to play in the

2022 Caribbean Premier League The 2022 Caribbean Premier League (CPLT20) or CPL 10 or for sponsorship reasons, Hero CPL 2022 was the tenth season of the Caribbean Premier League, the domestic Twenty20 cricket league that was played in the West Indies. The tournament was held ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hatzoglou, Peter 1998 births Living people Australian cricketers Australian businesspeople Melbourne Renegades cricketers South Australia cricketers Place of birth missing (living people) Australian people of Greek descent Australian people of Macedonian descent Perth Scorchers cricketers Oval Invincibles cricketers