New South Wales confident of keeping Katich

New South Wales are hopeful of re-signing their captain Simon Katich as early as next week. Katich lost his Cricket Australia contract this month and had drawn interest from other states, particularly Western Australia.

However, David Gilbert, the Cricket NSW chief executive, said the indications were that Katich was keen to stay with the Blues. "I am hopeful we can conclude Simon's contract in the next week, we have a few things we are discussing with his management and they are certainly achievable," Gilbert told AAP.

"He is devastated at losing his national contract but knowing the guy like I do he will be hell bent on getting it back and I expect him to have a bumper year for New South Wales next year. We are getting some pretty good vibes from Simon that he is going to stay with us which is fantastic news for us."

Katich, who has played with the Blues for five seasons after beginning his career with Western Australia, is currently in England captaining Derbyshire. In his first three games of the county season, Katich has 498 runs at an average of 166.