What happened to form-based selection?
Simon Katich's axing from Cricket Australia's contract list has sparked plenty of debate
Brydon Coverdale
25-Feb-2013
Simon Katich's axing from Cricket Australia's contract list has sparked plenty of debate. Richard Hinds, in the Age, writes that although selection controversies have always been part of cricket, in the past those decisions were at least generally based on form.
Now? We do not have simple selection. We have a contracts system that drastically diminishes the pool of players from which that elite XI is almost always selected. Often before we have any idea who is hitting and who is snicking; who is finding their line and length and who is being smashed over the rope.
In the Australian, Peter Lalor describes how Katich found out that his international career had been effectively terminated.
The Test opener received a call from selector Andrew Hilditch telling him his career was over in the middle of a Blues fitness drill at the SCG on Monday. A dark but determined cloud set over the session. Katich was a frightening sight as he processed the news and raged through a beep test. When it was done he had set the second fastest time for the squad. Not a bad performance considering he is coming off an achilles injury and the bloke who went better, Moises Henriques, is 11 years younger.
Malcolm Conn in the Daily Telegraph writes that the outrage at Katich's sacking has reached levels not seen in Australia since Steve Waugh was dropped from the one-day team nearly a decade ago.
While it is good to know that Australia are looking ahead, Jim White in the Daily Telegraph wonders whether the determination to do all that is necessary has not fried the brain cells of those in charge.
Brydon Coverdale is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. He tweets here