A player of 60s vintage who showed us what 2020s might be like

It’s inconceivable to be goal about dying. If it includes an accident that ends a sportsman’s life prematurely, you concentrate on his household; then you definitely ask, did he stay as much as potential? That query can seldom be answered within the constructive, for it’s human nature to consider that the subsequent occasion would be the figuring out one, the subsequent project will set up the legacy.

Those that play sport on the highest stage are judged by efficiency and never on potential. As soon as a profession is over, there isn’t a room for could-have-beens. No matter issues the late Shane Warne had exterior the game, he’ll at all times depend as one of many all-time greats, his 708 Check wickets testimony to that. Did he stay as much as potential? It doesn’t matter. What we all know is nice sufficient to ensure him a spot among the many most interesting.

Andrew Symonds was a cricketer of Sixties classic who performed within the 2000s and confirmed us what the 2020s is likely to be like. He was a throwback to an age the place the game wasn’t an all-consuming task-master, and accommodated a greater variety of temperaments. However he performed like a post-modern cricketer, together with his large hitting and talent to throw down the stumps from any angle.

Dwelling life on his phrases

The deadly automobile accident additionally took away somebody who lived life on his personal phrases, even when it meant a shorter profession in cricket with unfulfilled guarantees. Former Aussie captain Mark Taylor mentioned of Symonds: “He wished to go on the market and have enjoyable and play the sport he performed as a child. At instances he acquired in hassle for not going to coaching or having just a few too many beers however that’s the means he lived his life…”

Did the ‘Monkeygate’ controversy (Symonds claimed India’s Harbhajan Singh had racially abused him throughout a Sydney Check) successfully end his Australia profession? His captain, Ricky Ponting thought so; Symonds felt let down by his cricket board which didn’t again him. However swings and roundabouts, just a few seasons within the IPL made him tens of millions.

Symonds was an ideal all-round fielder, one of many hardest hitting batsmen, and bowled each off spin and medium tempo. He might have completed as one among Australia’s best all-rounders, to be spoken of in the identical breath as Keith Miller, a equally flamboyant character. However he didn’t slot in snugly within the uber-professional instances he performed in, making no secret of the truth that generally he would quite go fishing.

It made for a mixture of man and participant who was concurrently each an anachronism and a herald of the long run. The T20 revolution arrived in the direction of the tip of his profession; a youthful Symonds would have staked a declare to being among the many most interesting within the format, his abilities unfold over a wider vary than most.

He was the highest-paid abroad participant within the inaugural IPL. He might have been a first-choice participant in an all-time white ball group, however his profession had the texture of a System One automobile being pushed at lower than most velocity.

There is likely to be tougher hitters of the ball at the moment, higher off spinners, superior medium pacers, extra energetic fielders even – however not all these abilities are invested in the identical particular person like they had been with Symonds. The all-rounder as soon as acquired into hassle when he determined to go fishing quite than attend a group assembly forward of a sport in opposition to Bangladesh.

Taking a reduce

He additionally agreed to take a reduce (20% was the determine talked about) in his charges if it freed him from public relations duties with corporates and gave him extra time to go fishing. A contemporary cricketer voluntarily taking a pay reduce? It is a rarity. And it brings thoughts to one thing Richie Benaud wrote within the Eighties about previous gamers (in each technology) at all times claiming that they’d extra enjoyable, that the present crop didn’t benefit from the sport as a lot as they did.

Benaud’s response to this was unequivocal. “When subsequent you hear somebody moaning that the fashionable day cricketer doesn’t get pleasure from himself as a lot,” he wrote, “put it all the way down to wishful considering on the a part of golden oldies residing prior to now…”

Nonetheless, would any up to date participant take a pay reduce to unencumber time to attend a season of classical music, or take part in a safari or something that may be a ardour with him? Cricket, like all fashionable skilled sport, is a demanding grasp. The newbie spirit is appeared down upon, enjoyment is for the birds. Time spent away from the sport and coaching is usually seen as time wasted.

But Symonds was a reminder that whereas cricket could have been his life, his life wasn’t cricket. He was the reply to old-timers’ notions of contemporary gamers who eschewed all enjoyable and pleasure in pursuit of success – nonetheless they outlined it.