Katich ends playing career

SYDNEY: Former Australia Test opener Simon Katich brought the final curtain down on his cricket career by retiring from the Twenty20 format on Saturday. The left-hander, who scored 4,188 runs in 56 Tests with 10 hundreds, had retired from Australian first-class cricket after a major row with the country’s board following his dumping from the national side. Katich, who turns 39 next month, had continued playing English county cricket until 2013 and captained Perth Scorchers to the Big Bash League title (BBL) last season. “It’s always difficult when it comes to making these sorts of decisions,” Katich said. “I’ve obviously been in a similar situation when I made the decision to retire from first-class cricket in Australia a few years ago. “Having been through that before, it helped me understand the process a bit better and the more I thought about it, I felt the time was right. “I have a young family, I’ve had a great run and for my last game at the WACA, my home ground, to finish with a win in a successful (BBL) campaign, it’s the stuff you dream of. “I’ll finish on a high and that was a big part of the reason I decided to pull up stumps.”