Simon Katich’s axing had nothing to do with me: Michael Clarke

Michael Clarke, the 2015 World Cup-winning Australian captain, said he didn’t have anything to do with Simon Katich getting dropped from the national team. Way back in the year 2009, Clarke and Katich had an ugly dressing room scuffle over when the team song should be played. Following an ankle injury during the 2010-11 edition of the Ashes, the southpaw failed to make a comeback

He was dropped from the list of centrally contracted players. The fact that at the same time, Clarke took over from Ricky Ponting as the Aussie skipper raised more doubts. However, the 39-year-old Michael said that the heated moment didn’t play any sort of role whatsoever in Katich’s snub.

You are entitled to feel whatever you feel: Michael Clarke

As per Clarke, it was solely Cricket Australia’s decision to drop Katich. “The three they had to choose (for central contracts) from was Ricky Ponting, Michael Hussey and Simon Katich,” Clarke was quoted as saying in radio show Big Sports Breakfast.

“They were going to give contracts to two of those three players and they went with Ricky Ponting and Michael Hussey ahead of Simon Katich. So, his contract selection had absolutely nothing to do with me.”

In fact, Clarke mentioned that he tried his best to bring Katich back during the Ashes in England back in 2013. It was because, the team needed a reliable batsman at the top of the order. Clarke was also aware of the fact, many people had frustrations against him.

“You are entitled to feel whatever you feel but I can tell you now, on that Ashes tour I fought to have him back into that squad because, I agree, we needed a top order batsman, and his numbers were outstanding over a long period of time,” he stated.

“I understand a lot of people’s question and frustrations around it because it was in and around the time, I had become captain of the team, new contracts had to be done, there was Chinese whispers about what exactly happened in the change room,” Clarke added.

In his career, Katich played 56 Tests, 45 ODIs and three T20Is in which he managed 4188, 1,324 and 69 runs respectively. He last played competitive cricket for the Perth Scorchers in the 2014 edition of the Big Bash League (BBL).