The 30-year-old Real Madrid striker has been out of favour since being dropped for the final match of their disappointing World Cup finals - a 1-0 defeat by Portugal in the second round - but in an interview with Dutch magazine Sportweek he lashed out at van Basten.

"What is a shame is that the coach doesn't just base his selection on sporting prowess but on other criteria," said van Nistelrooy, who failed to shine at the World Cup scoring just once in three matches, the 2-1 win over the Ivory Coast.

"If you do not please him on a personal level, you are not retained.

"Thus one has to say that do not believe his selections are solely on a form basis.

"The evidence supports this, as there are certain players he does not want in his team," added van Nistelrooy, who also fell out badly with Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson leading to him being sold to Real in the summer.

Van Basten made clear his wish to start afresh when he left out midfield stars such as Clarence Seedorf and Edgar Davids from the World Cup finals squad as they had been known to be troublemakers in previous major championships.

Since then - where once again despite van Basten's infusion of new blood the Dutch failed to make an impression on the the tournament - he has also axed van Nistelrooy and hardman midfielder Marc van Bommel.

Van Basten, though, had stood by the clearly out of sorts van Nistelrooy - scorer of 28 goals in 54 internationals - during the group games at the finals but lost patience and inserted the younger Klas-Jan Huntelaar for the clash with Portugal deeming him to be 'better' than the former PSV Eindhoven star.

"After the finals I felt, which was confirmed by what followed, that I would not be recalled by van Basten," commented van Nistelrooy.

"However I am not going to give up on ever appearing for the national side again.

"I think that the Dutch public has the right to see a team made up of the best players.

"And I believe I still belong there."