SYDNEY, Dec 6: The Australian cricket selectors are under fire for treating New South Wales wrist spinner Beau Casson poorly.

Casson has been reduced to a Sydney club bowler only months after reaching an intoxicating high of becoming Australia’s 401st Test player in Barbados.

Casson, 25, is confused and struggling to deal with being passed over for Bryce McGain, Cameron White, Jason Krejza and Nathan Hauritz as Australia makes some inexplicable spin selections.

Earlier this year, Casson was being hailed as the answer to Australia’s great spin debate but the confidence of the sensitive youngster has been battered so badly he has just 1-304 from five first-class matches for NSW this season.

Angry NSW chief executive Dave Gilbert said Casson had been treated terribly and was now back to where he was when he switched states from Western Australia three years ago. “It is hard not to think that he has been treated shabbily,” Gilbert said. “It has been a strange turn of events. He performed well in his Test debut and has had to sit back and watch as four other spinners have somehow jumped ahead of him. He is not the most confident character you will meet. He didn’t see this coming and he has been shattered. He needs to be in the right state of mind to perform. Not to even make the touring party for India put him back to square one,” Gilbert added.

Casson, who is on the sidelines after splitting the webbing in his bowling hand in a Sydney grade match, vowed to return. “I’m obviously disappointed, but I am only 25 and I think my best years are still ahead of me,” he said. “I’m still hoping to get back into a baggy green one day and I’ll be trying my hardest to get back there.”

Casson was axed for the Indian tour for the apparent crime of being left-handed - and because Australia felt his occasionally loose deliveries would be heavily punished.

But after McGain was injured Hilditch opted for White despite the fact he rarely bowls for his state side, Victoria. “Beau did get a phone call from Andrew Hilditch when he was left out of the Indian squad however there was not great depth in his explanation,” Gilbert said. “It was along the lines of a horses-for-courses selection and they felt the other spinners would do a better job in India.”

White was one of the great disappointments of the Indian tour when he took just five wickets. Last week Casson was overlooked again, with NSW teammate Hauritz preferred for the Adelaide Test.—Agencies