Katich rapped over knuckles for Clarke comments
Simon Katich’s chances of ever again playing for Australia grew no brighter as he was rapped over the knuckles in a disciplinary hearing, escaping suspension from Cricket Australia for cutting comments he made about skipper Michael Clarke in October. Katich pleaded guilty at a CA Code of Behaviour hearing, chaired by retired county court judge Gordon Lewis in Melbourne on Monday, and was given an official reprimand.
“It’s not something you want to go through but I’m glad it’s out of the way now and very grateful for Commissioner Lewis’s findings,” Katich said on SEN radio after the hearing.
“Obviously I said things for a reason. At the time I was still coming to terms with the mixed messages I’d been receiving over the previous few months from the chairman of selectors and from other people involved in the team. From that point of view I said what I said, but at the end of the day now I just want to move forward and play some good cricket for New South Wales and put this behind me.”
On October 28 Katich suggested that his dressing-room stoush with Clarke in 2009 had contributed to his axing from Australia’s side. After scoring a Sheffield Shield hundred, Katich was asked whether the appointment of a new chairman of selectors, John Inverarity, would help his cause in winning a recall.
“It’s pleasing to hear but I think you don’t have to be Einstein to figure out that it’s not just the selectors that had a part in sending me on my way,” Katich said at the time. “I mean to be brutally honest obviously what happened in the dressing room here a few years ago didn’t help my cause. And obviously the captain and coach are selectors.”
When asked if he could expect to play for Australia again while Clarke remained captain, Katich said: “I wouldn’t have thought so. That’s probably why I’m in this position in the first place.”
In the dressing rooms after the 2009 Sydney Test, Katich grabbed then vice-captain Clarke by the throat after an argument over when the team song would be sung. Katich softened his tone when asked about Clarke.
“We were able to play cricket for a good couple of years there in the same team without it causing any problems, so from my point of view I didn’t see any dramas in that respect,” Katich said. “I guess I have just been searching for answers as to why I wasn’t in the team, given that I felt I’d been performing to a reasonable standard over the last three years.”
Clarke, who it must be noted again is both captain and a selector, was subsequently reported as being no keener to be in the same team as Katich, despite the lack of an established opening pair in the Australian team. — Staff reporter, SportsCentral
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