In a spiritual sense, Andrew Symonds occupied the same wondrous place in Australian cricket dreams as Shane Warne and Rod Marsh. | ANALYSIS by Daniel Brettig
In a spiritual sense, far from cricket’s day-to-day world of aggregates and results both sporting and financial, Andrew Symonds occupied the same wondrous place in Australian cricket dreams as Shane Warne and Rod Marsh.
Clarke and Symonds were not always as chummy, but more of that later. Symonds’ background, born in the UK to one Afro-Caribbean parent and another of European descent and then adopted by English couple Ken and Barbara, was unique in Australian cricket. His childhood hero was a cricketer he would later earn comparisons with, the singular Viv Richards.
Test cricket achievement was also a case of slow burn. In 2004, he was chosen speculatively ahead of Simon Katich in Sri Lanka, and it wasn’t until the 2006-07 Ashes series, replacing Damien Martyn, that Symonds made a place his own. It was prescient but also fateful timing. With Warne, Glenn McGrath and Justin Langer soon to retire, the team needed a new star, and Cricket Australia a new brand.
The ICC’s initial verdict, to ban Harbhajan, was overturned on appeal amid Indian threats to abandon the tour, mortifying the CA board with nightmares of the cash hole that would leave. Sitting in Adelaide’s federal court building, Symonds felt humiliated, and worse for teammates Ponting, Hayden and Clarke, who had spoken up for him. Trust broke there and then, and an inexorable slide began.
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