It certainly looks that way after the Yorkshire pace bowler was overlooked for the second Test against South Africa at Headingley Carnegie.

If Hoggard can't get a game on his home ground, when can he?

Instead, the selectors opted to draft in the uncapped Nottinghamshire seamer Darren Pattinson ahead of Hoggard, Steve Harmison and Simon Jones.

For Hoggard, it represented the ultimate snub – a kick in the teeth he could not have anticipated.

He is fit, available and desperate to play; no-one better knows the conditions at a venue where he has 128 first-class wickets at 27.93.

Hoggard was at Headingley yesterday for a pre-arranged question-and-answer session on Test Match Special.

Asked his views on Pattinson's call-up and his own omission, he delivered a typically candid response. "I must admit I was a bit upset when I turned on the television and saw that Pattinson had got the nod," said Hoggard, who has 248 wickets in 67 Tests at 30.50.

"To be honest, I'm not holding my breath about getting back into the Test side.

"I've gone through all the emotions and more during the past few months and I thought the writing was on the wall when I was overlooked for the first Test against New Zealand earlier this summer.

"Then Steve Harmison broke my thumb and that set me back several weeks.

"I've never seen Pattinson bowl before and I honestly thought he came from Australia. When you speak to him he has a broad Australian accent, but he was obviously born in England and has an English passport.

"But he's done well this season and he's bowling as well as anyone. Good luck to him, although at the moment it's not looking good for me in terms of my Test career."

Hoggard lost his Test place in March following a disappointing performance against New Zealand in Hamilton.

Since then, he has dropped off the radar as surely as an aircraft flying through the Bermuda Triangle; the 31-year-old has been unable to force his way back into a side in which James Anderson and Stuart Broad have become regular features.

Hoggard's performances for Yorkshire this summer have been generally impressive if not statistically eye-catching.

In seven first-class games, he has taken 25 wickets at 23.76 and has worked tirelessly in an effort to gain an international recall.

With the best will in the world, however, it is difficult to see a way back for a man famously described by England captain Michael Vaughan as his "shop floor steward".

Now it looks as though Hoggard has been relegated to the anonymity of the store cupboard – discarded, forgotten, unlikely to return.

TWO weeks ago today, everything in Yorkshire's garden seemed rosy as they went into their Friends Provident Trophy semi-final against Essex at Chelmsford.

The club were within sight of giving captain Darren Gough his cherished dream of a Lord's final in his last season as a professional cricketer, they were riding high in the County Championship First Division and within one win of reaching their first Twenty20 finals day.

Two weeks later, that garden no longer looks bright and beautiful.

Yorkshire were well beaten at Chelmsford, they have dropped into mid-table in the Championship and, in a faux pas of extraordinary proportions, have been eliminated from the Twenty20 Cup due to their inability to properly register Azeem Rafiq, the 17-year-old off-spinner, which has cost them a chance of reaching finals day at the Rose Bowl next Saturday and a potential place in the £2.5m Champions League.

Even by Yorkshire's standards, that represents one heck of a fortnight.

It is also, quite possibly, the beginning of the end for the team's hopes of achieving anything notable during 2008.

Yorkshire looked very poor on Wednesday night during their NatWest Pro40 defeat against Essex and captain Darren Gough will need all his inspirational qualities to mastermind a revival.

Quite simply, the Yorkshire players have been stuffed by events outside their control and it will not be easy to sweep the potential loss of £2.5m under the carpet.

The relationship between the players and the administration led by chief executive Stewart Regan is bound to have suffered and it will be interesting to see whether the team can recover.

Yorkshire were playing some splendid cricket until a fortnight ago and they have the capacity to fight back from recent events.

But the next couple of months will be a stern test of character for a side whose season has lately come off the rails.