Symonds and 'weak officials' got it wrong
Robert Craddock writes in the Courier-Mail that Andrew Symonds was a player never humble enough to learn from his mistakes, governed by weak officials who let him get away with far too much for far too long.
Brydon Coverdale
25-Feb-2013
Robert Craddock writes in the Courier-Mail that Andrew Symonds was a player never humble enough to learn from his mistakes, governed by weak officials who let him get away with far too much for far too long.
I live in Queensland and have had Bulls players tell me all summer that Symonds' head was nowhere near right for a recall to international cricket. That he simply is not the player he was. That he was distressed at the fact he lost millions of dollars in the collapse of the Storm Financial Group and, even more painfully, that his family lost money as well. And that he had fallen out of love with the game. It showed almost every innings he played in a season when he averaged 15 for the Bulls.
The national selectors' decision to recall him for the Twenty20 championships in England showed how completely out of touch they really are with his mindset and the game in general. Somewhere in Adelaide last night I can just picture head selector Andrew Hilditch getting the news and saying, "Oh really? What, not Symo? I'm stunned". It's going to be a terrible shock for Hilditch when he finds out Harold Holt has gone missing.
In the Herald Sun, Ron Reed considers how Symonds has let down his good friends within the team.
Symonds is an arrogant and often sullen character - not the sharpest card in the pack, either - who believes the rules are not made for him. His biggest crime is one that resonates with most Australians, whether they are sports stars or not - he let down his mates who went in to bat for him.
Symonds finds support in his Kent captain David Fulton, who writes in the Times that the Australian brought great passion to the game, but was undone by the constant public spotlight.
David Hopps writes in the Guardian about how Symonds can spend his time from here on, if this is the end of his international cricketing career.
Brydon Coverdale is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. He tweets here