An entertainer to the core, he demanded attention whenever he was on the field. You always knew where Andrew Symonds was when he played cricket.
When he strode out to bat with cream around his lips with sometimes long flowing hair or dreadlocks or sometimes bald, Symonds was the cynosure of all eyes. It seemed like he was the perfect box office cricketer that the sport needed. Yet, despite all this, this all-rounder’s international career did not quite take off as it should have.
He remained an enigma after having wowed crowds since a young age. He had an unique childhood in that he was born in Birmingham to Afro-Caribbean and Danish/Swedish parents. He was then adopted by a family that moved base to Australia. Yet, Roy as he was affectionately called by his teammates had the opportunity to move and play for England.
Back in 1995, English cricket was wallowing in mediocrity when the Symmo missile struck the county circuit. As a 20-year-old for Gloucestershire, he demolished attacks with his batting and also backed it up with some medium-pace bowling. English cricket believed that they had found their superstar and selected him for an A team tour to Pakistan. But the young man preferred Australia and pledged his allegiance to his adopted home.
He would continue to ply his trade for Queensland in Sheffield Shield and other domestic competitions. But an entry into international cricket was still some time away as the Australian side was packed with superstars. Australia had still not entered the era of total domination which they would achieve under Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting. The champion side was being sculpted.
It took a bit of time but finally, Symonds did make his presence felt at the international level, slowly but surely. He was a showman and, in a side full of superstars, stood out despite being a newcomer. For around five years, the Queensland lad seemed to have frittered away all the talent that the world had seen in him. Afterall, very rarely does an uncapped player get chased by two countries at the same time. But finally, it all came good during a knock which came to define his career for a while.
It was the 2003 World Cup clash against Pakistan. Yet again, a Pakistan side threatened Australia’s proud record as an unbeaten side in a World Cup. With nothing working out for him, Symonds had almost decided on switching to play Rugby league. It was new ODI captain Ponting who insisted on his selection for the World Cup. It worked wonders for the Australian side.
That side was already without another character Shane Warne as he had been suspended for a year for consuming banned substances. Darren Lehmann was suspended for racial abuse during the ODI series at home before the World Cup and Michael Bevan was injured. So Symonds had to walk into the XI more out of necessity than any strategy. Walking out to bat with his side struggling at 86 for four, he played an innings that is talked about till today. Against an attack comprising the best at the time including Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, and Shoaib Akhtar, Symmo was brutal.
The way he dealt with Akram and Younis with disdain showed his disregard for reputation. Symonds ended with what was then the highest score in World Cups for an Australian, a rapid 125-ball unbeaten 143 with 18 boundaries and two sixes. He also played a part in the field with a fantastic catch to dismiss Mohammed Yousuf. The happiest man post the game was not the all-rounder but his captain Ponting.
"We saw his talent and we've known it for a long time. It was about time it started coming out," said Ponting after the match.
But instead of kicking on from there, he seemed to underachieve. He did make his Test debut when a new era began after Waugh’s retirement in Ponting’s first series as captain in Sri Lanka. Australia’s galaxy of stars were now in their elements. It was nigh impossible to retain a place if you didn’t match up to the high standards set by others.
On the disastrous 2005 Ashes tour, tragedy struck early on for Australia when they lost to Bangladesh in a tri-series encounter. Symonds played a part not in the match, but before it for turning up drunk. He was duly suspended for embarrassing his biggest supporter, Ponting.
However, he got a chance to redeem himself in the return Ashes series post the shock retirement of Damien Martyn. He weighed in with a masterful 156. Things were finally turning around for Symmo. It seemed like life was looking up and lady luck was smiling on. His ODI career was also dotted with useful contributions. His presence in the 2007 World Cup triumph was also useful.
As someone reporting on that 2007 World Cup, the sight of a drunk Symonds in just his briefs standing in the hotel balcony in Bridgetown, Barbados with Mitchell Johnson will never be forgotten. They were looking over the beach behind the hotel watching their captain Ponting, Adam Gilchrist, and Glenn McGrath being involved in an ICC-organised photo-op. The Johnson-Symonds duo on the balcony kept distracting the champion trio by the beach making it a field day for shutterbugs and hacks.
That was the beginning of the end, even as his Test career took off in 2007. He got in verbal scraps on the Indian ODI tour especially with Sreesanth, Harbhajan Singh, and Irfan Pathan. The crowds booed him and racially abused him, calling him a monkey. The final ODI at Mumbai was especially traumatic as a few spectators were even arrested for their behaviour.
The Indian tour to Australia that followed further deepened the chasm between the two sides. Harbhajan and Symonds went head-to-head again. In an acrimonious encounter at Sydney, Australia accused Harbhajan of raising the monkey slur again. Harbhajan was banned, then India appealed, flexed its muscles and got the entire issue buried under the carpet quite swiftly. Symonds was left heartbroken. Ponting was left dismayed by the turn of events.
Symonds did turn up for Deccan Chargers in the first three editions of IPL, making sporadic appearances. In the meantime, his international career was taking a nosedive. He had a bitter fallout with Ponting’s heir apparent, Michael Clarke. It was a fractured relationship which dated back to the 2005 tour of England, and was not repaired till the end.
"I haven't talked to Michael for a long time. I wouldn't know what he's up to," Symonds was quoted as saying in The Sunday Telegraph. "No, I'm not (friends with him). A lot of people have asked me what Michael is like. The way he is being portrayed is interesting because people are asking me a lot about him. I don't know the answer. I'm not in the inner circle anymore. I'd be guessing if I answered that.
"It was a number of things. I guess we just didn't pan out like we would have or should have. I haven't heard from him. We've gone our separate ways and that's the way it has stayed. That's all right, though," added Symonds.
Later in 2008-09, he was declared unavailable for selection by Cricket Australia (CA). He was fined A$4,000 for public comments. Alcohol consumption was also another major consideration. In a radio interview, Symonds with his slurring speech made an insulting remark (a lump of s****) about former New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum. At the time, McCullum was playing for New South Wales in the Big Bash League (BBL) final. A retired judge, Gordon Lewis, was appointed to investigate the matter by CA.
After the inquiry, CA also designated a psychologist, Deidre Anderson, to work with the all-rounder. In the past, Anderson had worked with champion swimmer Ian Thorpe as well.
Symonds did make a brief return to the Australian set-up post the rehab work, but he was not the same cricketer anymore. He was a shadow of his former self. His Test career was in complete shambles and he excused himself from the longer version of the game. He became a T20 freelancer plying his trade everywhere, especially in the IPL. He was amazingly clubbed together with Harbhajan at Mumbai Indians after the first mega IPL re-auction in 2011. But much of the bitterness had watered down. His active playing career ended with Mumbai Indians in a most non-Symmo way. However, he did make a long-lasting friendship with current India white-ball spinner Yuzvendra Chahal, then playing for Mumbai Indians, which impacted the young man’s career.
By the time his career ended, he was not the entertainer that he had started out as. He was very unsure and understated by the end of it all. This was quite unlike the man who played a part in an era of Australian domination.
Maybe, Australian cricket needed a healing touch to deal with a maverick instead of being hard-nosed in its methodology. What might have been, we will never know.
RIP Roy!
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