Careers of Fleming and Miller could be over

The cricket careers of Damien Fleming and Colin Miller could be over after they were today overlooked by Victoria for contracts for next season.

Fleming and Miller, who both toured England with the Australian Test team last year, were the apparent victims of Victoria's youth policy under new coach and selector David Hookes.

Fleming, 32, was "absolutely stunned" by the decision, which comes just three weeks after he and Miller were axed from the list of Australian Cricket Board-contracted players.

"They just didn't rank me in the top 20 players in Victoria, they didn't rank me in the top seven in the bowlers and here I was (with) the thought that there was a real role for an experienced bowler in the state," Fleming told Channel Ten.

"They've lost Paul Reiffel to retirement and my performances were pretty good last year.

"I had a pretty good Ashes series with Australia less than this time last year, so I was looking forward to a big season so yeah, (I'm) absolutely stunned."

Miller, 38, the Australian Test cricketer of the year 15 months ago, could not be contacted.

The snub comes two months after the Bushrangers wound up their disappointing summer, in which they finished second-last in both the Pura Cup and limited-overs ING Cup competitions.

While Victorian officials are reluctant to confirm the Bushrangers are pursuing a youth policy, Hookes stood by the selectors' call.

"At the end of the day we made the call, we thought that there were players better than them qualified to play for Victoria at the beginning of the next season and that's the way that we went," he told Channel Ten.

Hookes said overlooking the pair was a difficult decision, but would not explain the reasons behind their omissions.

"Age had no factor at all in either of their considerations of both the blokes," he said.

"They are two quality players, they have been very good servants of domestic cricket in this country and indeed for Australia, even though Colin started very late.

"He was a teammate of mine in South Australia for a number of years so that made it very difficult, and Damien Fleming being the type of personality that he is also made it very difficult."

Hookes said Victoria was not in a position to poach players from interstate under salary cap restrictions.

Only Shane Warne and Ian Harvey have ACB contracts, meaning Victoria has to pay all but two of its squad.

Fleming and Miller have played 20 and 18 Tests respectively, with almost 150 wickets between them, but injury and poor form last summer meant they couldn't break back into the Australian side.

Fleming took 13 wickets from five Pura Cup matches in 2001-02 at 30.07 runs apiece, while Miller snared just six wickets at 72.50 from six matches.

Victorian Cricket Association chief executive officer Ken Jacobs said he, Hookes and selectors Ray Bright and Mick O'Sullivan met with Miller and Fleming today.

Jacobs also refused to divulge exactly why the pair was overlooked.

The selectors also cut four players from the 2001-02 contract list: batsmen Shawn Craig and Peter Harper, off-spinner John Davison and wicketkeeper Peter Roach.