Mark Waugh says Simon Katich should be remembered as one of Australian cricket’s best, after the former Test opener announced his retirement from domestic first-class cricket on Tuesday.
Turning 37 next month and currently playing with Hampshire in the English County competition, Katich said prioritising his young family was the reason for his retirement.
Katich hangs up the whites after an illustrious Sheffield Shield career for NSW and Western Australia, a year after his time in the Baggy Green was brought to an abrupt and blazing end.
However he will appear for the Perth Scorchers in the Champions League Twenty20 in October and appears likely to play on in the Big Bash tournament next summer and possibly again for Hampshire next County season.
Katich was controversially axed from the Test side last year before being later stripped of the NSW captaincy.
He played 56 Tests for Australia, scoring 10 centuries and 4188 runs at an average of 45.03.
Katich publicly slammed cricket Australia following his demotion after the 2010-2011 Ashes, and dropped a bombshell at the end of last year when he said a 2009 dressing room fight with Michael Clarke meant he would never make it back into the Test team while Clarke was skipper.
Waugh said the tenacious left-hander had been hard done by at the selection table.
“He’s got a very good record both at first-class and Test level at the top of the order, so he should be remembered as one of our best players,” Waugh told AAP.
“He was definitely unlucky. I don’t think he should have got dropped. His record was better than a few of the guys that were in that team ahead of him.
“I think it was his age and maybe because he’s unfashionable, maybe that’s the reason he did get dropped.
“If you go purely on statistics he should not have got dropped when he did, he was our most consistent player at the top of the order and his previous couple of years were outstanding.”
Cricket Australia’s industrial dispute prevented Katich’s manager Robert Joske from talking formally with NSW and Western Australia about his client going around again for another season.
However, with Katich just 333 runs shy of 20,000 first-class runs and having recently scored 196 for Hampshire, Joske is confident there would have been interest in Katich had he wanted to play another season in Australia.
“I’d be very surprised if he hadn’t been attractive,” Joske said.
“I am comfortable NSW and Western Australia were quietly interested, although I’ve had no formal chats.”
Waugh was part of the Test team at Headingley when Katich made his debut against England in 2001, and said the West Australian was the ideal teammate.
In addition to his Test career, Katich played 45 one-day international matches and three T20 internationals for his country.