Cricket Australia is “not happy” with Simon Katich for his angry outburst after being dropped from the list of contracted players but does not plan to take disciplinary action against the veteran batsman.
“I understand that Simon is disappointed and that he has made comments along those lines today but I don’t see that CA will be taking action for those comments,” James Sutherland, CEO of Cricket Australia, told reporters.
In an emotionally charged press conference today, the 35-year-old Katich said he was disappointed and frustrated at being dropped despite being one of the most consistent performers for Australia in the Test arena.
Katich ridiculed the Australian selection panel saying,” If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.”
Sutherland said he could understand Katich’s anger but CA stood by the panel headed by Andrew Hilditch.
“My view and Cricket Australia board’s view is that, it is right for people to be able to make their subjective judgements but it crosses the line when there are any suggestions about the integrity of individual members of the selection panel, the panel as a group, or the processes they engage in to make these selections,” said Sutherland.
“I am not necessarily saying Simon has entirely called them into question in that fashion but Cricket Australia stands by them in terms of their integrity and the process they go through,” he added.
Sutherland said it would have been better had Katich spoken to CA officials privately, instead of making his anger public.
“The simple answer is yes, Simon could have expressed his views more privately. But he chose to do that in the manner that he did,” Sutherland said.
“I’m not making a complaint about that. I know Simon did have some discussions with the Australian Cricketers’ Association to explore that. If that’s not some sort of avenue to at least understand what his rights might be then I’m not sure what is,” he added.
The CA chief also ruled out a paid selection panel for the time being.
“At the moment we have a selection panel of three, Greg Chappell is a full-time employee, there are no immediate plans for that, but there is a review under way and it is quite obvious that one of the topics of discussion within the review process has been about selection,” he said.
