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By Karthik Narayan

The lifespan of any cricketer has four stages: The Infancy or Debut stage, the Rising Star Stage, Super Star stage and finally the Consolidation Stage. Simon Katich of Australia is right now in the second stage moving higher up.

All roads lead to Rome, but there are certain stones and blocks in between some roads. Katich’s test debut did take a long time, beset with strange health problems; he contracted Chicken pox after he was named in the squad in the 1998-99 season. At last, the road took him to Rome after a few more stumbles! Katich made his foray into test cricket when Steve Waugh broke down with an injury after sealing the Ashes 2001 in England at Leeds as a total Stranger to every one of us watching with all our mouths wide open to gasp a welcome for the new comer. The whole wide world gaped at this new Debutant at the age of 25, as the nervous butterflies inside his stomach tapped and flapped. He did not score much to gain a permanent berth on the Aussie Chart Busters.

Katich had to wait till the fag end of Steve Waugh’s career to comeback again into the team in 2003 versus Zimbabwe at Sydney. He scored a fifty with the bat, but really the surprise was when he rolled a few balls off his left arm Chinaman, and picked up 6/65. The Australians always have a bag of surprises to show every single time they take the field, and this man is one too. He is one of those Bits ‘N’ Pieces players in the team.

Simon Katich has a handful of test attendances and has had a decent run at the Sydney Cricket Ground, which has always left something special for this player born in Middle Swan. After a good bowling stint against the Zimbabweans, he did come good again with the bat this time. With a quiet yet brilliant century in the first innings against the Indians at Sydney in the 4^th test, he went on to score 77* in the second innings. That was incidentally the test where Simon’s best test knock and first test ton was overshadowed by two incidents: Sachin Tendulkar’s patient come back to form double ton, and Steve Waugh’s teary farewell.

Simon has built himself on Steve Waugh, valiant, resilient and simple yet effective. He is definitely neither stylish nor aggressive. He waits and scores, not poking the bat at every ball, not trying relentlessly for runs. So basically, he stays at the wicket, holds one end up, and looks to consolidate on the starts he gets. We have not seen much of the big knocks, but he has shown great promise.

Katich had to wait till the fag end of Steve Waugh’s career to comeback again into the team in 2003 versus Zimbabwe at Sydney. He scored a fifty with the bat, but really the surprise was when he rolled a few balls off his left arm Chinaman, and picked up 6/65. The Australians always have a bag of surprises to show every single time they take the field, and this man is one too. He is one of those Bits ‘N’ Pieces players in the team.

Simon Katich has a handful of test attendances and has had a decent run at the Sydney Cricket Ground, which has always left something special for this player born in Middle Swan. After a good bowling stint against the Zimbabweans, he did come good again with the bat this time. With a quiet yet brilliant century in the first innings against the Indians at Sydney in the 4^th test, he went on to score 77* in the second innings. That was incidentally the test where Simon’s best test knock and first test ton was overshadowed by two incidents: Sachin Tendulkar’s patient come back to form double ton, and Steve Waugh’s teary farewell.

Simon has built himself on Steve Waugh, valiant, resilient and simple yet effective. He is definitely neither stylish nor aggressive. He waits and scores, not poking the bat at every ball, not trying relentlessly for runs. So basically, he stays at the wicket, holds one end up, and looks to consolidate on the starts he gets. We have not seen much of the big knocks, but he has shown great promise.

His first class record also represents his patience, ability to feel and exploit the gaps in the field, and he has amassed 9000 plus runs in 121 first class games, with a Highest Score of 228* and an average of over 50, comprising of 26 centuries and 47 fifties.

Well, the next stage in any cricketing career is the Super Star Stage: Everything these guys do at this stage strike chord, and they became household names overnight. Everything falls into place; it’s the best phase of a player’s life, when he becomes one of the top players for the side. It’s still quite early to tell whether Simon has reached that level or not.

Like the sun which rises from east to west, spreading the sunshine on all our shoulders as the day progresses, as we see more if this player, we may very well see him grow and spread that joyous sunshine on our shoulders and make our faces glow in that brightness. We at Cricketfundas.com wish this Sunny Sonny hit the High “Lights” as he grows and glows.

 

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