Haddin had played the first Test of last year’s away Ashes Series but had to rush home to be with his sick daughter.

Peter Nevill was promoted for the second Test before Haddin made himself available for the third game but was overlooked for Nevill.

He never played a Test again.  

“The thing that hurt me the most in the whole business was a quote Rod Marsh gave to the media in response to the outcry against the decision,” Haddin writes.

“He said, ‘It was an amazingly hard call, but we have to try and do the best thing for the country and the selection panel believe that was the best thing for the team, for the country.’

“As he pointed out in the same interview, Rod had known me for two decades, since I was a teenager at the cricket academy.

“He knew that the team and my country meant everything to me. In fact one of the things I am most proud of as both a cricketer and a man is the comment made by Darren Lehmann and many of the guys I’d played with that I put the team first every time.

“So reading those words from Rod, which sounded as though he was saying I would put my own desire to play above what was best for the team or for Australia, well, it was like a knife to the heart.”