Simon Katich was controversially dropped in 2011. Source: News Limited
CRICKET Australia has finally admitted that opener Simon Katich should not have been dropped from the Test side.
CA chairman Wally Edwards made the candid admission after Thursday's annual general meeting in Melbourne.
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Edwards said selectors erred in dropping Katich two years ago, a controversial decision that continues to cause great angst in Australian cricket.
"There were a lot of decisions made that you probably wish in hindsight, they weren't made," Edwards said.
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"But they were made in an attempt to move from a very strong side to a new side.
"I would put the dropping of Simon Katich in that corner... they (selectors) didn't get it right."
Former Test captain Ricky Ponting launched a scathing attack on CA, labelling Katich's axing as "dumb" in a move that left Test stars on tenterhooks as they batted for their futures.
Australia's most successful Test captain used the launch of his new book, At the Close of Play, to highlight management failures that ultimately led to the sweeping Argus Review.
But Ponting also blasted the selection methodology that saw Katich sensationally dumped from CA's contract list in 2011, leaving the former Test skipper facing his own cricketing mortality.
Former selection boss Andrew Hilditch presided over Katich's sacking despite the opener, aged 35 at the time, having amassed 2928 runs at 50.48 since his Test recall in 2008.
Ponting said Katich's treatment left Australian colleagues dismayed and represented one of the worst selection decisions in his 17-year tenure as an international cricketer.
Katich's age was understood to be a primary factor in his dismissal, but current Test opener Chris Rogers will be 36 when he faces England in the first Test at the Gabba next month.
"Before the old selectors departed, they made one of their strangest decisions when, a few weeks before the Argus Review was published, they didn't offer Simon Katich a new contract," Ponting recalls in his book.
"This effectively ended Kato's international career, because they were hardly going to pick him for our tour of Sri Lanka in August-September so soon after essentially giving him the sack.
"In my view, this was as dumb a non-selection as any during my time with the Australian team.
"Kato had averaged more than 50 in Test cricket during the previous three years. He had scored six fifties and two hundreds in his most recent 10 Tests.
"More than any statistics, he was one of the grittiest and most sensible cricketers in my experience, a tough character in the Justin Langer mould — my sort of cricketer.
"I knew we couldn't afford to cast such a player aside so easily. If the selectors were now rating potential ahead of performance, this was the first we knew of it."
The Katich decision left psychological scars for some Test contemporaries. For Ponting, who is eight months older than Katich, it was chilling evidence selectors could wield the axe, without rhyme or reason, at any given moment.
"Kato's poor treatment put us all on notice," Australia's greatest Test runscorer said.
"For me, from here until the finish, it was all about my batting.
"I could only assume they were trying to avoid a situation where a few of us senior batsmen of about the same age — Kato, 'Huss' (Michael Hussey) and me were all born within nine months of each other — all retired at once.
"But to avoid that by dropping Kato prematurely, when the guys in line to replace him didn't have the runs on the board to do so, was a weird remedy."
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