Don't think old tiff with Clarke led to axing: Katich

Simon Katich has debunked speculation that his axing from Cricket Australia's list of contracted players was a fallout of his two and a half year old dressing room spat with current captain Michael Clarke.

Simon Katich has debunked speculation that his axing from Cricket Australia's list of contracted players was a fallout of his two and a half year old dressing room spat with current captain Michael Clarke.

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"I don't think that was an issue. We had a professional relationship," Katich said in a press conference. The 35-year-old opener, who was axed by CA despite a reasonably good Test record, has decided to continue playing nonetheless. But he rubbished suggestions that Clarke might have had a hand in getting him ousted to settle scores for the dressing room tiff during which the two came to blows. "I know there's going to be a lot made of that," he said. "Having seen the press over the last few days and obviously Michael Slater made some comments the other day," he added.

But Katich did admit that the two had a stand off which was reportedly triggered during the celebrations of a Test win over South Africa. "I'd just like to say that with regards to that situation, I'm not going to shy away from the fact that we had the incident a couple of years ago.But we've both been really professional in handling that over the last two years and it hasn't been a problem since then. So I don't think that's an issue," he said.