I've never agreed that things even themselves out, and certainly in the short-term they don't neccessarily do so. Hoggard, over his career as a whole, has certainly never struck me as a particularly lucky bowler in terms of bowling uninspiringly and still getting good figures, but there's no doubt in my mind that in the short-term period that was the summer of 2002, he was.
As I say - I don't feel he bowled well in more than one innings that summer (and in said innings he took good figures), yet his figures in the second, third and fourth Tests out of seven were very good despite him, in my view, bowling poorly.
Had Hoggard's figures been poor in every innings of the summer (not that he'd have been remotely likely to last the course if that'd been the case, obviously) it'd have been no injustice, is the point I'm making. I just don't feel anyone can correctly claim he bowled remotely well that summer. If you do, then I suppose we'll have to agree to disagree.
None of it (even though it is interesting) is relevant to the fact that, between 2004 and 2007, Hoggard probably bowled better than Cork ever did, of course.