John Crawley is facing up to life without England - after chairman of selectors David Graveney refused to return his call.

Crawley, 32, departed for Australia and his third Ashes series after his first season with Hampshire.

But after not being named in the party of 16 for the tour to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka this autumn, he reckons he has won the last of his 37 Test caps.

Crawley, who plans to hand over the Hampshire captaincy to Shane Warne next year, was expecting to play for England this summer before he was dropped ahead of the opening Test against Zimbabwe

He said: "We were talking about the captaincy at the start of the season and I said I'd love to do it but really didn't think I'd be here for a lot of the season.

"And to this day I don't think I've had a satisfactory explanation from the selectors.

"Just before the tour parties were announced I rang David Graveney and left a message asking for some guidance on what I need to do to get back in, whether I had a chance, what I needed to do to improve, or to just be a man and tell me if I didn't have a future.

"That's all I asked for.

"Unfortunately that phone call has not been returned yet which is disappointing.

"It left me staring down the barrel of never playing for England again which I will have to mentally get over in the winter and just come back fresh next year.

"You never say never in the sporting life. You can come back at 34, like Graham Thorpe has, but I would appreciate a bit of guidance and I'm still waiting for the reply to come to see if I've got any chance or any inkling or if they've got any plans for anything."

Crawley went on to have the worst championship season of his career in 2003 - and he reckons his England omission was a factor

"It still plays on my mind even now so that did have a lot to do with it, but the only thing I can do now is to put it back in the cupboard and get on with life with Hampshire, which is a great future for me.

"I've tried my hardest to get over it and give everything I've got in every game for Hampshire, even more so than I did when I played for Lancashire.

"Hampshire have been absolutely fantastic in supporting me through the rubbish that happened a couple of winters ago."

Now, after his second season with the county, Crawley is preparing to combine some part time work in Hampshire Cricket's marketing department with an Open University management course.

He added: "Hopefully six months of doing something different will give me a fresh start next year. I'm also going to be doing some work for a company called B sports management and putting that practice into theory with the Open University. I'm looking forward to the challenge, it'll be very different."