Simon Katich

Born to Yugoslavian immigrant parents, Simon Katich was born in Middle Swan, a rural suburb of Perth in the state of West Australia and went on to represent them debuting in the 96-97 season. A left handed batsman playing predominantly in the middle order, Katich is known for his fondness to shuffle across the stumps to play on the leg side, in a fashion similar to Shivnarine Chanderpaul.

Right from the start of his career, Katich has shown an ability to score big runs for teams that he represents. In just the second year of his first class career, he raked up 1039 runs and was promptly selected to represent the national team in the next season. But health problems forced him out of the squad and it was only in the Ashes series of 2001 that he made his test debut. Though not really successful with the bat, he impressed with a 6/65 against Zimbabwe in Sydney, that was the time that Australia were on a roll in international cricket and that made it difficult for Katich to break into the international side. But the retirement of Steve Waugh in 2004 opened up a spot in the middle order and Katich was the one to capitalize on that.

In spite of a good start to his career where he made a century against India in Sydney, he was dropped in favor of Andrew Symonds. Critics were quick to point out the obvious flaws in the batting techinque, and a low scoring rate did not help matters. What could have helped him was his prowess to roll his arm over as a left arm chinaman bowler, but given Ponting's aversion to spin, that never materialised. Although he made a comeback replacing Symonds and scored a hundred in the legendary 2005 Ashes series loss, it just wasn't enough.

Instead of crying over lost opportunities and losing his way, Katich was candid and sporting enough to admit that the selectors were correct in dropping him. He went back to the domestic season, now captaining New South Wales, and broke Micheal Bevan's Pura Cup record by scoring 1506 runs in a single season. This brought him into national reckoning again and now, he made the most of it. Katich went on to score 6 hundreds in 16 matches in an unfamiliar slot as an opener. Along with Shane Watson he formed a potent combination at the top which brought joy to the Aussie fans after the retirement of Hayden and Langer. Katich's straightforward and intelligent approach to the game and a ruthless demeanor meant that he was tipped to be the next captain of Australia after Ponting.

It was not that he was inexperienced, he had been captain of NSW and Derbyshire. But fate had other plans. In the aftermath of the 3-1 Ashes loss, where he got injured after the second test and couldn't play the remaining 3 matches, Katich was dropped from the central contract list. The general feeling was that the selectors were looking to the future and wanted to brood in young blood like Phil Hughes. Katich, never the one to give in, lashed out at the establishment and to everyone's surprise, didn't announce his retirement. On the contrary he said that he would continue playing and captaining New South Wales in the domestic tourney. He also is regular at the Big Bash League playing for the Perth Scorchers since 2011. He has played for a few English counties like Derbyshire and Yorkshire and now represents Lancashire in their domestic circuit.

This spunk and grit has indeed been the hallmark of a player who never had it easy and had to fight his way through to make it to the top.

Interesting Fact: Katich suffers from Ansomia which is an inability to perceive odours.

By Siddharth Prabhakar