Andrew Symonds
Andrew Symonds was an Australian international cricketer, who played all three formats as a batting all-rounder. Commonly nicknamed "Roy", he was a key member of two World Cup–winning squads. Symonds was a part of the team that won both the 2003 Cricket World Cup and, four years later, the 2007 Cricket World Cup. Symonds played as a right-handed, middle-order batsman and alternated between medium pace and off-spin bowling. He was also notable for his exceptional fielding skills.
After mid-2008, Symonds spent significant time out of the team due to disciplinary reasons, including alcohol abuse. In June 2009, he was sent home from the 2009 World Twenty20, his third suspension, expulsion or exclusion from selection in the space of a year. His central contract was then withdrawn, and many cricket analysts speculated that the Australian administrators would no longer tolerate him and that Symonds might announce his retirement. Symonds eventually retired from all forms of professional cricket in February 2012, to concentrate on his family life.
In 2022, Symonds died in a single-vehicle car crash at Hervey Range, outside Townsville, Queensland. He was 46.
Early life
One of Symonds' birth parents was of an Afro-Caribbean background, while the other was believed to be of Scandinavian descent. Symonds was adopted by parents Ken and Barbara at three months of age, and they moved to Australia when he was a toddler. He had three siblings. His sister, Louise Symonds, who was also adopted, was a contestant on the Australian Gladiators television series in 2008. He spent the early part of his childhood in Charters Towers, northern Queensland, where his father taught at the private All Souls St Gabriels School, which Symonds attended. He showed sporting prowess from a very early age. "Dad was cricket mad," Symonds said. "He'd throw balls to me five or six days a week, before school, after school. And we'd play all sorts of games inside the house with ping-pong balls and Christmas decorations." His early junior cricket was played in Townsville for the Wanderers club, with the father-and-son duo making the 270-kilometre return trip sometimes twice a week. In 1988, Symonds' father accepted a deputy headmaster role at All Saints Anglican School, and the family subsequently relocated to the Gold Coast when Symonds was 12 years of age. He attended the school and continued his junior cricket at Palm Beach Currumbin. A few years later, Symonds made his Queensland Premier Cricket debut for the Gold Coast Dolphins as a 15-year-old and hit a remarkable double century in his first game.Overview of cricket career
Symonds was an aggressive right-handed batsman who could also bowl off spin or medium pace, making him a solid all-rounder. He was an exceptional fielder, with a report prepared by ESPNcricinfo in late 2005 showing that since the 1999 Cricket World Cup, he had effected the equal-fifth-most run-outs in One Day International cricket of any fieldsman, with the fourth-highest success rate, with Ricky Ponting rating him the best fielder he had seen, and a better and more versatile one than Herschelle Gibbs and Jonty Rhodes because Symonds was taller than them, giving him better defensive coverage range and had greater throw power outside the circle. He was very agile for his size and weight, had excellent reflexes, was able to take catches well and had a powerful and accurate throwing arm. His nickname was Roy, shortened from the name Leroy, after a coach from early in his career believed he resembled local Brisbane basketball player Leroy Loggins. He was an AIS Australian Cricket Academy scholarship holder in 1994.In 1995, after playing in his first season for English county Gloucestershire, Symonds won the Cricket Writer's Club Young Cricketer of the Year award. Shortly afterwards, Symonds was selected as part of the England A team that was to tour Pakistan in the winter; however, he decided not to go, instead choosing to pursue an international career for Australia. His place on the tour was later taken by Middlesex player Jason Pooley.
Domestic cricket
Australian state cricket
Symonds scored more than 5,000 runs and took more than 100 wickets for the Queensland state team. He scored 113 and took four wickets in a losing cause in the final of the 1998–99 Sheffield Shield season, and was named man of the match in the 2002 Pura Cup final after scoring 123 runs and taking six wickets.English counties
Symonds played for four English counties during his career—Gloucestershire, Kent, Lancashire and Surrey. His first appearance for an English county was with Gloucestershire. Initially, he was considered an England-qualified player; however, following his first season of county cricket in 1995, he declared that his allegiances lay with Australia when he chose not to tour Pakistan with the England A team.In August 1995, he hit a record 16 sixes in his unbeaten 254 against Glamorgan at Abergavenny. In doing so, he beat the previous mark set by New Zealand's John R. Reid. Wisden reported that the 16th six "landed on a tennis court about over the boundary" and "though he was undoubtedly helped by the short boundaries, it would have been a hugely effective innings on any ground in the world". The record was equalled by Graham Napier for Essex against Surrey in 2011, and stood until May 2022 when Ben Stokes hit 17 sixes in an innings for Durham against Worcestershire. Symonds added four more sixes in the second innings, to beat the old record of 17 in a match, set by Warwickshire's Jim Stewart against Lancashire at Blackpool in 1959.
In July 2005, he signed for Lancashire for the rest of the English season having finished duties as part of Australia's ODI squad. In April 2010, he signed for Surrey to play in the Friends Provident t20 competition.
Kent
Between 1999 and 2004, Symonds played for Kent. He joined the club as an overseas player for the first time ahead of the 1999 County Championship and was also brought in as an injury replacement for Daryll Cullinan during the 2001 County Championship.He eventually made his mark in T20 cricket which was in its early days during his stint with Kent. He also featured for Kent in the inaugural edition of the 2003 Twenty20 Cup and played an influential knock of an unbeaten 96 runs off just 37 balls with a strike rate of 259.45 against Hampshire in a group stage match. His knock which came at a strike rate of over 250 was a surprise given that T20 cricket was in its very early days. His knock sealed the deal for Kent as the modest target of 146 was reached within just 12 overs.
Some of his highlights came on 2 July 2004 when he hit a 43-ball 112 for Kent Spitfires in a Twenty20 Cup match against Middlesex Crusaders. He scored 112 in 37 minutes and his century, which came at 34 balls, was the then world record for the fastest ever century in T20 cricket. His record stood for nine years before being surpassed by Chris Gayle, during the 2013 Indian Premier League, who did it in 30 balls. Symonds' knock comprised a flurry of boundaries including 18 fours and three sixes which came at a strike rate of 260.46 and his knock helped Kent to win the rain-affected match convincingly by seven wickets with 29 balls to spare.
He appeared in 49 first-class matches for Kent, scoring 3,526 runs for the club at an average of 45.20, including 12 centuries, and also taking 65 wickets. He also played in 62 List A matches for Kent, scoring 1,690 runs at an average of 30.17, and took 69 wickets at an average of 21.53. In 2020, Kent supporters named him as the club's Greatest Overseas Player in the white ball format.
Indian Premier League
In February 2008, Symonds was signed by the Indian Premier League franchise Deccan Chargers for US$1,350,000, which made him the second-most-expensive player in the league at that time. During the 2008 competition, Symonds scored 117 not out from 53 balls against Rajasthan Royals. The Royals ended up winning the game, with Symonds conceding 19 runs from the final over, with 17 required to win. Symonds started the third season convincingly, scoring two 50s in his first three games with the side in 2010. The following year he was contracted by Mumbai Indians for US$850,000.International career
Emergence and 2003 World Cup
Although Symonds was originally qualified to play for England due to its being the country of his birth, and West Indies due to his ancestry, in 1995 he decided that he wished to pursue an international career for Australia instead. His international debut came on 10 November 1998, when he played in a One Day International for Australia against Pakistan at Lahore. As an ODI player, he was known for scoring runs at an excellent strike rate of over 90, with a highest score of 156.However, at the start of his international career, Symonds struggled to make an impact with the bat and ball, although his fielding was of high quality, and was not a regular member of the playing XI. Symonds was named in Australia's 2003 Cricket World Cup squad. After all-rounder Shane Watson had to withdraw due to injury, Shane Warne was sent home after failing a drugs test, and with Darren Lehmann still serving a suspension for racial abuse, Symonds made his way into the starting XI. According to former England cricketer Adam Hollioake, Symonds would not have made the 2003 World Cup squad if he had not received backing from captain Ponting.
In the first match against Pakistan, Symonds scored 143 not out to guide Australia from 4/86 to 8/310 en route to an 82-run victory, a performance described by Kanta Murali of The Hindu as "one of the best knocks in one-day cricket history". The innings went on to become the turning point of his career. In the semi-final against Sri Lanka, Symonds top scored with 91 not out and was named Player of the Match, as Australia won by 48 runs. With Australia's defeat of India in the final, they claimed their third World Cup triumph, becoming the first team to go undefeated in an edition of the tournament. Following this breakthrough, The Age described Symonds "as a true one-day star", who had "become an essential part of the one-day team."
He batted in five innings during the victorious 2003 World Cup campaign where he made 326 runs at an average of 163. He was also the third leading runscorer for Australia during the World Cup campaign just behind Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden. He remained unbeaten in three of the five innings and his only failure with the bat in the tournament was against England where he was dismissed for a duck.