Brad Hodge has taken one final swipe at selectors for consistently overlooking him as the curtain falls on his domestic career with Victoria.
Despite two matches remaining in the Ryobi One-Day Cup competition, Hodge announced his retirement from the Bushrangers on Monday so he could be available for the Bangladesh Premier League in February.
Hodge will go down as one of Australia's finest domestic players, but despite consistently scoring runs in all forms of the game he only managed six Tests for Australia and 25 ODI appearances.
When Australia named their squad for the upcoming Twenty20 matches against India, 37-year-old Hodge was again left bemused by the decision to include veterans like Brad Hogg and Brett Lee over youth.
"I'm puzzled. Turn my clock back maybe six years ago when I was 31 and told that I couldn't play one day cricket for Australia because I wouldn't make the next World Cup side and that was four years later and I'm 35 and still playing my best cricket," he said on Wednesday morning.
"I wish the selectors that are involved now were involved back then because I might have had half a sniff."
"Selection has puzzled me for a number of years and it continues to puzzle me and continues to puzzle the public."
"It doesn't make a lot of sense to me anymore but having said that, it doesn't bother me one little bit anymore either."
"This is the one thing that I'll miss. Coming into training, coming to the MCG, which I love, coming and hanging out with the guys and wanting to perform and challenging yourself at a level."
Hodge said his decision to not play the final two games of the Ryobi Cup was due to a combination of the Bushrangers wanting to promote youth and the Bangladesh Premier League, which begins in the first week of February.
"I knew that my life span only probably had another two games, the reality is that the direction of the Bushrangers cricket is they want to promote the youth and unfortunately I'm not getting any younger and I knew that after these two games then that was going to be it for me," he said.
"It was a livelihood decision and I think it's very understandable. Everyone involved in Cricket Victoria understands completely and we'll probably see more things like this from time to time."
"It's a sad day for sure and I'd like to continue playing until I'm 50 – looks like everyone else is – but the reality is that at this level for some reason you have to call it a day."
Hodge said the introduction of Twenty20 cricket has been a blessing for both himself and his family and he will continue to play all over the world until he is not good enough to do so.
"I'm going to go to Bangladesh. Twenty20 is my life that it's become now. That's the path that I've chosen and it gives us a great time for leisure, time for our families," he said.
"It's been a blessing on my family that T20 has come in, you only play for a couple of hours and your home with your family and kids and that's extremely important to me having slogged it out for many a years trying to play at the highest level that puts a lot of stress on myself and my family."
"This is just a relaxation time and for me the challenge is to go and continue and play at the highest level to the unknown and to me the unknown is Bangladesh, India, New Zealand, Australia ... my idea is to play the best I possibly can."