Katich upset over 'unfair' treatment

Simon Katich, the Australia opening batsman, has broken his silence over not receiving a central contract, telling the Australian that he has not been treated fairly. Katich believes he was judged solely on his performances in his last four Tests, which he played despite being injured, and not on his overall form since returning to the side in 2008.

Since his comeback, Katich has made 2928 runs at 50.48 and has been not only Australia's most reliable batsman but among the most bankable in the world. In that time only Alastair Cook has scored more runs.

"Do I think I have been treated fairly? Not at all, not at all," Katich 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.

"In India they kept telling me it was a bruised thumb and I could hardly hold the bat but they kept telling me it was bruised so I thought 'Well I can't not play Test cricket if it's a bruise'."

Katich revealed that his recovery program began the night after the Adelaide Ashes Test ended. A fellow player offered him a beer at the airport but Katich turned him down, saying, "No thanks mate. Recovery starts now."

He has been undergoing rehabilitation since then and it was at the SCG on Tuesday that he received the phone call from Andrew Hilditch about being left out of the list of contracted players.

"I was in the middle of a fitness test, saw the phone ringing and saw who it was and thought 'Damn, I better answer this'," Katich said. "I knew full well what it was, I didn't want him to have the luxury of leaving a message, so I grabbed it. It's funny, I have been treated like this before by them. 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."

Katich believes he still has much more to give Australia and that if he didn't, there was no way he would have undergone such a rigorous rehabilitation program.

"Put it this way I don't think I would have wasted our physio and our fitness trainers' time over the past six months or my time doing this rehab every second day for the sake of it. That is not how I operate. It's not just my time, it is the staff's time as well and I am always respectful of that.

"Up to 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."

Katich is scheduled to hold a press conference on June 10 to announce his future plans.