MELBOURNE: Australia’s chief selector Trevor Hohns has assured Peter Siddle that his international career is not over after the Victorian paceman was overlooked for a Cricket Australia central contract offer for next year.

Siddle was one of a host of experienced players, including George Bailey, Shaun Marsh and James Faulkner, not to receive a 2017-18 CA contract offer when the 20-man list was announced last Monday.

The 32-year-old, who has played just one Test in the past year due to injury, had a gut feeling the bad news was coming but Hohns said the door was not shut on the Ashes-winning quick.

“I had that little inkling coming into the announcement that I was probably going to miss [out on a contract],” Siddle said on Fox Sports on Saturday. “I got the phone call from the chairman of selectors Trevor Hohns a couple of days before to let me know. As sad and annoying as it is, I had a feeling it was going to happen.

“At the end of the day, [Hohns] explained the reasoning, which I pretty much knew anyway. For me, my question was, ‘Does this put a line through my name or am I still going to be thought about.’

“The good news back was, ‘Age is no factor with you.’ ‘It’s just a matter of getting fit, getting back on the park, play some games for Victoria and we’ll see where you’re at.’ ”

When asked whether he feels his 62-Test career is over, Siddle replied: “I don’t feel it is. I’ll take [Hohns’] word for it — whether he’s telling the truth, I hope he was for my sake!”

Siddle has been recovering from a back injury he sustained in the first Test of the 2016-17 summer against South Africa in Perth.

While Siddle doesn’t have the pace to match his younger speedsters, he believes his 211 Test wickets and almost a decade performing at the highest level will hold him in good stead once his fitness returns.

“It’s going to be tough, 100 per cent,” Siddle said when asked if he can mix it with the Big Four. “There’s young guys coming through, they’re performing well but I think one thing on my side is my record.

“The skills and stuff I’ve done in big series against sides like England and South Africa are going to back me up.

“I’ve just got to get on the park. Fingers crossed I’ve got a lot more cricket to play for Australia.”

The right-armer entered that Test with only one first-class match under his belt after suffering back stress fractures in the first Test against New Zealand in Wellington seven months earlier.

In that time, since February 2016, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood have led Australia’s pace attack with aplomb, Patrick Cummins made an impressive return in the Baggy Green in India, Jackson Bird has been outstanding as the third seamer and state team-mate James Pattinson has made a habit out of destroying batting orders all over the world.

The ‘Big Four’ of Starc, Hazle­wood, Cummins and Pattinson have been selected in Australia’s 15-man Champions Trophy squad and look set to be the foundation of Australia’s pace battery for the Ashes series on home soil next summer.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2017