Simon Katich Slams Cricket Australia Over Contract Culling

Trust an Australian to call a spade a spade. Or a ridiculous decision exactly as that. Simon Katich was at the receiving end of a rather silly decision to not accord him a contract for the new season by the Cricket Australia and he minced no words and slammed the cricket board for its poor rationale in some of the decisions that they have taken in recent times.

Katich has been a part of the Australian squad and has opened the innings for them ever since the retirements of Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer. Katich did not have a great Ashes last summer, but his record in the last couple of years has been good, his batting has been dogged and he has provided excellent support for his opening partner, Shane Watson.

While statistics do not give the entire picture, an average of more than 50 in the last three years and of 47 and 46 respectively in the last two and one season respectively tells me that he has been consistent. And yet, to have given him the axe is a surprise, and that is putting it mildly.

Katich was in no mood to put things mildly though. He went left, right and centre, going hammer and tongs in a manner that he would have probably never even batted in his career. Dourness had always been Katich’s middle-name when he batted but he gave it the kitchen sink when it came to this.

Katich said, “This is not just me, there's plenty of other guys out there as well who've gone through this. I'm extremely disappointed and frustrated with the decision I found out about on Tuesday but I also want to make it clear that I know I'm not the only player who has gone through this in the last couple of years due to inconsistent policies.”

He also added that the board needed to appoint full-time selectors, summing the decision to have an amateur panel of selectors in this one line: when you talk about money you get the best in the business for paying. If you pay peanuts you get monkeys.

Katich also reminded the fans of two of the incidents that earned his ire. One was the manner in which the selectors had handled the spinners since the retirement of Shane Warne and the other was the selection of 17 members in the Australian squad before the start of the Ashes – a decision that spoke of their indecision.

Cricket Australia CEO James Sunderland has said that it is unlikely that the board would take any action against Katich but did add that it would have been better had the beleaguered player spoken to the board in private than gone public with his feelings.