Katich to face CA board hearing over Clarke row

Angry batting star to face Australian board hearing over row with current skipper Michael Clarke

Katich to face CA board hearing over Clarke row

Angry batting star to face Australian board hearing over row with current skipper Michael Clarke

Simon Katich was ordered to face a disciplinary hearing on Saturday to explain his outspoken
comments accusing Test captain Michael Clarke of playing a part in his axing from the Australian team.

Simon Katich (left) and Michael Clarke leave the field at close
of play on Day Three of the Nottingham Test against England on
August 27, 2005. PIC/GETTY IMAGES

Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland said he was "surprised and disappointed" by Katich's
allegations and the player had been reported for breaching their code of behaviour.

"CA emphatically refutes any suggestion that Michael Clarke influenced the independent selection panel's recommendations for the 2011-12 CA contract players' list, a list that did not include Katich," he said. "Without compromising my confidential understanding of the selectors' confidential thinking, I can state their recommendations were completely independent of outside influence."

Katich was dropped from Cricket Australia's contract list in June and said he doubted he would play for his
country again as long as Clarke was skipper. He made his comments on Friday after Australia's new chief
selector John Inverarity said the door had not been closed on his international return.

But the opener, who has played 56 Tests for Australia, averaging more than 45 runs, said he doubted Inverarity's appointment would be enough to secure his return to the fold. "It's pleasing to hear but I think you don't have to be Einstein to figure out it's not just the selectors that had a part in sending me on my way, so that's one of those things," Katich said when told about Inverarity's comment.

He traced his troubles to a 2009 dressing room confrontation with Clarke in which he reportedly grabbed the new Test skipper by the throat. Katich said: "To be brutallyu00a0honest what happened in the dressing room here a few years ago probably didn't help my cause.

"Obviously the captain and coach are selectors, so just because he's going to be chairman of selectors, or
whatever role it is, I wouldn't have thought that that'll make too much difference." Katich said he had not
spoken to Clarke about the incident and doubted he would ever play for Australia again under Clarke's stewardship.

"I wouldn't have thought so, because that's probably why I'm in this position in the first place," he said. Clarke denied playing any part in the axing.