Andrew Symonds’ performances always changed the course of the game | Cricket News – Times of India

Two moments of breathtaking brilliance in the field are available on YouTube to define what Andrew Symonds was to that ridiculously talented Australian cricket team in the 2000s. The first is from an ODI in Melbourne vs West Indies in 2001. His victim was Laurie Williams, who tragically also died in a car crash, like Symonds did in Townsville, Queensland late on Saturday. Williams died in Jamaica in 2002, aged 33. Symonds was 46.
In the video, Williams drives Nathan Bracken towards long-on and starts running. But Symonds swoops in from mid-wicket, stops the ball, spins while still parked on his buttocks, and coolly throws down the stumps at the striker’s end. All this happens in about one-and-a-half seconds.

The batsman, stranded mid-pitch, marvels in awe at the coordinated skills of the square-shouldered Queenslander, whose death in the wee hours of Sunday morning left the cricket fraternity, still reeling from the aftershock of Shane Warne’s passing, in mourning again.
The second piece of magical fielding, involving sharp shooting and predatory skills, is from the 2007 World T20 semifinal in Durban. The batsman is Robin Uthappa, who shells a cover drive off Mitchell Johnson but finds Symonds in the way.

The force of the stroke causes the ball to burst through his wickedly strong and large palms and travels a couple of metres behind him. Uthappa calls Yuvraj Singh for a single. Symonds sprints back, locates the ball but doesn’t find wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist near the stumps. At the other end, Yuvraj too is short. Symonds pauses, contemplates briefly over which end to throw and chooses the striker’s end and hits middle stump. Gilchrist, still parked 20 yards behind the stumps, has a smirk on his face that says, ‘I know Roy will hit, why bother!’
In salutary pieces upon a cricketer’s passing, we often get swayed by stats, but seldom do we have indicators that show us what impact a player had on a tournament, or match. Symonds was a mercurial but impactful cricketer for Australia, whose performances always changed the course of the game. Like they did in the 2003 World Cup opener against Pakistan in Johannesburg.

With Australia still reeling from Warne’s suspension due to a failed drug test and struggling at 85/4, Symonds hammered a match-winning and tournament-impacting 143 not out to repay the faith of skipper Ponting, who had lobbied hard with selectors for Symonds to get on the plane. In the same game, he hared across from square-leg to mid-wicket, dived forward and plucked an impossible catch to dismiss Pakistan’s mainstay Mohammad Yousuf.
Symonds was a polarizing pick for Australia as he had been chosen over Steve Waugh, Then chief selector Trevor Hohns had explained why they chose the man who played 198 ODIS, 26 Tests and 14 T20Is and was the most expensive overseas player ($1.35million) in the 2008 IPL. “Symonds offers us variety and match-winning potential. His fielding alone makes him stand out.

“There is also the option he gives us with the ball as he can bowl medium-pace or off-spin. As a batsman he can score at a rapid rate and has the ability to change the course of a game,” Hohns had said. Symonds averaged 163 in the 2003 World Cup. In 2007, another World Cup the Aussies won unbeaten in the Caribbean, he averaged 63.
Cricket came naturally to ‘Roy,’ as the man who wore Rastafarian dreadlocks, zinc cream on lips along with an intimidating swagger, was nicknamed. It was life skills and conformity that proved more difficult to handle.

His love for individualism, amber coloured liquids and an undying romance for fishing caused him to turn up drunk for matches and miss team meetings. The last of his indiscretions came in the 2009 World T20 in England when he broke a no-drinking contract and was sent home. He never played for Australia again.
Tributes from friends and mates from Down Under indicate that loyalty towards the people he cared about mattered more to Roy than the wins, runs and wickets. Perhaps that explains why even after his death, his two beloved blue-heelers, who were in the vehicle, but survived the crash, reluctantly let him be taken away by the paramedics.
After all, who understands loyalty better than dogs?