Upset at being summarily sacked from the team for the third Test against India, Australia vice-captain Shane Watson is contemplating quitting Test cricket.
Watson checked out of the team hotel and left for Sydney even as the rest of the squad trained, only hours after the all-rounder along with three other key Australian players were axed for ignoring a team management order.
Watson said he was "absolutely shattered" at being dropped and will have to weigh his future in Tests now.
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"Any time you're suspended for a Test match unless you do something unbelievably wrong, and obviously everyone knows what those rules are - I think it is very harsh," Watson was quoted as saying by the Australian media.
"I'm at a stage where I'm sort of weighing up my future and what I want to do with my cricket in general to be honest.
"I do love playing, there is no doubt about that but... I'm going to spend the next few weeks with my family and just weigh up my options of just exactly what direction I want to go," he said.
Watson, though, added that he is at the peak of his career.
"There are a lot more important things in life – I certainly do love playing cricket and that passion is still there and I feel like I'm in the prime years of my cricket career.
"From that perspective I still feel like I've got a lot to give. But from a holistic perspective I've got to sit down with my family and decide which directions they are," he added.
Watson, fast bowlers James Pattinson and Mitchell Johnson and back-up batsman Usman Khawaja were axed from the team for failing to make a presentation on how to improve their personal as well as the team's performance after the heavy defeat in the second Test in Hyderabad.
Watson said he would have communicated to skipper Michael Clarke and coach Mickey Arthur about his decision of missing the fourth Test in Delhi to be home for the birth of his first child.
"I was about to communicate that to Mickey and the leadership group today but they obviously beat me to it by telling me I wasn't selected for this Test match," he said.
"Also overnight, things have changed and Lee wasn't going to tell me things had changed because she knew how much it meant to me to be able to play this Test match. (The baby) was due in a couple of weeks but it's looking like things have sped up a little bit," he added.
Arthur said the four players had not replied to his email request after being given five days to come up with a presentation and the decision was taken to maintain standards in team culture.
Former cricketers including Dean Jones, Michael Vaughan, Shane Warne, Steve Waugh, Allan Border and Mark Waugh reacted sharply to the exclusion of the four cricketers.
