The 35-year-old's stunning axing could go on to spell the end of his Test career. Not surprisingly, the decsion of Cricket Australia has been ridiculed and condemned by former players and media pundits. Interestingly, the calls for chief selector Andrew Hilditch's head has now grown sharper and louder.
Katich has been Australia's pillar in Tests over the last couple of years. Creditably, he maintained his status despite being hampered by a broken thumb that he experienced on last year's tour of India. Katich also suffered from Achilles tendon injury that ended his Ashes campaign after the second Test in Adelaide.
"Do I think I have been treated fairly? Not at all, not at all," said the passionate and gritty Western Australian, who averaged a solid 45.03 runs in 56 Test matches.
He said: "From my point of view, I have had to play through injuries in the last four Test matches, two with a broken thumb and two with a torn achilles."
"I didn't want to play Test cricket like that although I know that is what they have judged me on," he told the Australian newspaper.
Katich has already once been told by Hilditch in 2007 that his Test career was over.
He pulled no punches when the chief selector called to tell him that his services will not be required in the forthcoming season.
"It's funny, I have been treated like this before by them," Katich added. "I have been down this path a number of times."
"I spoke my mind, I certainly didn't hold back. There was no shirking the issue, but there was nothing said that was personal it was just about the decision. I vented my spleen about the decision and explained why. There was no name-calling or anything like that, though," said a disturbed-looking Katich.
Katich said it was ever more so disillusioning as he had been working hard over the past three weeks in preparation for the Sri Lanka series. He felt all his efforts into rehabilitation and training in a bid to get fit for Australia's Test season, went in vain.
He said: "Uptill Tuesday, I had done three weeks' training ahead of the rest of the squad starting and I did that because I wanted to be ready and firing in Sri Lanka."
The selectors said they had ditched Katich in order to bed in a new opening partnership in time for the 2013 Ashes series.
Katich will make an announcement on his future on Friday, the report said.
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.Powered by Disqus
No comments:
Post a Comment