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Symonds dropped for booze; career over?
By Will last year, at the start of June, 5 Comments »
Cricinfo broke this an hour ago. He’s reportedly going to give his side of the story after he arrives back in Australia (hopefully not after draining the duty free). It’s all rather sad now. Hugely gifted player and his career’s come to a drunken full stop.
5 Comments »Symonds’ foot/pint in mouth
By Will last year, at the end of January, 7 Comments »
I’m sure there are some people who share a degree of sympathy with Andrew Symonds’ travails over the past year. I am not one of them. He has an obvious drinking problem, and that’s a bugger for sure, but if he can’t control what goes into his mouth, you’d think he’d be better at limiting the crap that comes out.
Not so. Last week he called Brendon McCullum a “lump of s***”. If you can work out what he’s trying to say below, you’ll win the praise of every Corridor reader. Possibly even Symonds himself.
7 Comments »“They’re trying to use him [McCullum] as the out because he’s a Kiwi,” Symonds said. “Yep, we love to hate them, but he’s the lump of s…, sorry, lump of cow dirt, that people are thinking of. Now to get away from that, the actual topic is about playing cricket and getting into a final.
“To get yourself to that position and if you haven’t brought anybody in, personally I wouldn’t be changing a winning team. It doesn’t matter about McCullum, mate, he could have been Irish, he still would have got it.” Are you keeping up?
“It’s not his fault, he’s doing his job and trying to earn a wage. But what happened here is an injustice. I said Daniel Smith, his opposite number, was going to miss out. But they said this morning that Daniel Smith is going to play, but at the end of day somebody is still going to miss out.
‘He’s in a good place’ – oh toss off
By Will 2 years ago, mid-November, 5 Comments »
Right. I need some help. Over the past 12 months or so, the phrase “he’s in a good place” has sprung up like a particularly virilent form of hospital super bug and it’s resisting every fathomable disinfectment. It’s everywhere. Steve Harmison has been described as “in a good place” ever since he returned to the England side, and now Andrew Symonds has also joined him in this happy sphere of goodness. Form counts for nothing these days, despite what Peter Moores bangs on about (“yeah. He’s looking a million dollars in the nets”). It’s all about how happy they are; whether they’re in their special, good place.
Where is it, and how do you gain entry? Answers on a postcard, or ideally in the comments below.
5 Comments »Andrew Symonds on monkey-gate
By Will 2 years ago, mid-November, 3 Comments »
Hello. Sorry for lack of posts. More important things called.
Compared to their last series, India and Australia’s current tussle has been seriously dull. I suppose I should publicly welcome that fact, but the cynic in me loves nothing more than a furore. Happily, or something, Andrew Symonds has retraced the steps which led Harbhajan Singh to call him a monkey. Here it is from Cricinfo:
“One of our off-field team couldn’t hide his disbelief at this…The frustration levels in the camp were rising and I was conscious of contributing to the pressure on the team. It was another turbulent match. I was out for a first-ball duck. I trudged off, getting darker at the world by the second as monkey chants boomed out around Wankhede Stadium. Finally in the rooms, I said to myself: ‘Well, what the f— happened there?’ I wasn’t referring to the dismissal, more to the events that had led up to the game. It had become impossible to escape and I only hoped things might start to improve.”
Symonds said things just got worse in the Indian innings. “Harbhajan and I locked horns briefly in the 35th over and that’s when he chucked the ‘monkey’ word at me. I didn’t have to be Einstein to work out what he was referring to. The word got around the team, but I had decided I really didn’t want to go any further with it. Frankly, I was sick of it and just wanted it all to go away.
“India won the game, and afterwards the team had a brief discussion about whether a formal charge should be laid against Harbhajan. But I was keen to try to deal with it there and then and went along to their dressing-room and asked to speak with Harbhajan. I basically told him: ‘Look, the name-calling is fine with me, it doesn’t particularly worry me what you call me, but you know what is going to happen. One thing will lead to another and you blokes will end up going to an umpire and it will get out of hand’. I said that the word he used was offensive and hurtful and he apologised and said it wouldn’t happen again.
“We shook hands and I said: ‘That’s the end of it’. As it turned out, Harbhajan would later deny this conversation took place, but my recollection is about as clear as I can be on the event.”
The quotations come from Symonds’ latest autobiography, Roy on the Rise, which is seemingly available from no good newsagents or booksellers. Or Amazon.
3 Comments »Richard Boock, the fence-sitter
By Will 2 years ago, at the start of February, 8 Comments »
There’s a strong chance Richard Boock, the New Zealand journalist, may never leave Australia alive – assuming, that is, he ever receives an invitation to visit the country. Yesterday, he launched a stingingly hilarious rant on Australia’s media following the recent monkey-business:
Then there was the Australian cricket media who, with a few notable exceptions, appear to be the most sycophantic group of arse-crawlers ever assembled in one nation, to the extent that it was impossible last week to gain any sort of accurate or at least balanced picture of proceedings.
New Zealanders really know how to wind up the Aussies. Read the full piece here.
8 Comments »On effigies, cheating and monkeys
By Jonathan Liew 2 years ago, at the start of January, 56 Comments »
This has all the makings of an Asia-Rest of the World showdown that has been threatening a denouement for several years now. I really hope not.
But first things first: fire and the burning of effigies don’t exactly have the same significance they might have in Britain or Australia. Fire is an intrinsic part of Indian culture – at a Hindu wedding, for example, a fire sacrifice is made, and the bride and groom have to walk around it seven times. And nobody really takes the death threats seriously. And the donkey thing – well, that was just funny. Some of Benson’s Kent team mates will have had a good chuckle at that.
As for cheating – well, there’s no evidence anybody deliberately cheated. Walking is nice, but not compulsory, and while some of the appealing and catch-claiming was pure, cynical gamesmanship, it wasn’t illegal. It’s therefore a disciplinary issue alone, to be discussed at length in an air-conditioned room with plenty of cold drinks available.
And the ‘racist slur’ – it doesn’t really matter if the word ‘monkey’ is racist or not. We can’t be sure it was said. There was certainly enough evidence to charge Harbhajan (and possibly Symonds too) with verbal abuse, but Mike Proctor and the ICC are really going to wish they hadn’t opened up the whole ‘racist’ can of worms. How – I mean, honestly, how – did they think this was going to end?
But however wronged India may feel, they’re forgetting rule number one of cricket – get on the field and play. You can get angry afterwards. Let’s hope that the TV companies have a quiet word with the BCCI. Perhaps money can achieve what diplomacy clearly can’t.
56 Comments »Video of Harbhajan and Symonds sledging
By Will 2 years ago, at the start of January, 41 Comments »
Well why not? Here are the winning pair in their now infamous day three tussle. The best line is from Ian Chappell right at the end, when he says “I’m not sure Matthew Hayden would be my choice as UN peace-keeper”. Hayden was an intermediary, stepping in to break things up.
Click here if you can’t see the video above.
41 Comments »Harbhajan banned; India apoplectic
By Will 2 years ago, at the start of January, 57 Comments »
So Harbhajan Singh has been banned for three Tests after calling Andrew Symonds a monkey. This is the correct decision, but the fallout could be quite monstrously messy.
There are already reports (from the never-really-to-be-trusted Press Trust of India) that India are considering abandoning their tour of Australia. Judging by the splenetic feedback we received today at Cricinfo (much of it was unprintable and vile), the issue many people have isn’t with Harbhajan but the umpires. I watched a TV news channel in India hold an impromptu discussion surrounding it. “Umpired out in Sydney” screamed the headline. “India fall victim of umpires” read another. One member of the audience said that if Bucknor were to visit India, he wouldn’t return alive. It was greeted with warm applause.
Yes, India, I’m afraid you were victim of some absolutely horrific umpiring decisions and I’m sure Mark Benson and Steve Bucknor will be penalised accordingly. But do not expect players to walk: this is not part of cricketers’ clauses in their contract. It is up to the umpires to adjudge whether a player is out or not and, if they say it’s not out – then live with it. There is a vast amount of luck involved in sport; what comes around goes around.
Frankly, I find the BCCI’s decision to demand an investigation into the umpiring pathetic. Every other country has series like these, where decisions go against them, but everything related to Indian cricket seems to be magnified to an extraordinary level; that they are victimised and the whole cricket world is against them, when it is not. It wouldn’t surprise me if the Indian government get involved in the next few days.
Equally, the attitude of Ricky Ponting and some of the Australians was extraordinary in the extreme. Appealing to Benson for Dravid’s wicket, which was turned down, Ponting sunk to his knees and was muttering away as though nothing had gone Australia’s way in the entire Test. Come off it, Ricky. In situations like these, when you’ve clearly had the immense rub of the green, some diplomacy and dignity would count for rather a lot.
What a shambles. Happy new year everyone.
57 Comments »Symonds was called a ‘monkey’ by Harbhajan
By Will 2 years ago, at the start of January, 100 Comments »
This is very messy indeed. Apparently – and this is to be taken with a bucketful of salt – Harbhajan Singh called Andrew Symonds a monkey during their altercation yesterday. This is according to Chetan Chauhan, the India team manager, who also says the term “monkey” isn’t derogatory in India. That may be the case, but neither is it a glowing term of endearment; given the history between the pair, this excuse is pretty pathetic and smacks of a management desperately bailing themselves out. The whole affair needs nipping in the bud immediately, beginning with banning Harbhajan for the default period of such an offence (I think it’s either two Tests or four ODIs).
The problem some people will have, I imagine, is one of double standards; that Australia are allowed to sledge and no one else is. Sledging isn’t (or shouldn’t be) racist. Harbhajan’s alleged term isn’t a sledge, it’s a racist slur.
It’s pretty depressing that it should overshadow what has been a fascinating Test by all accounts. Worse still, what impact will this case have on the future of international cricket? Last year, I went to a number of Associate matches in Kenya and Ireland. And before each game, a variant of the following rule (clause 3.3 of the ICC Code of Conduct) was read out (at most of Kenya’s venues, but only some in Ireland because the PA often forgot):
…language or gestures that offends, insults, humiliates, intimidates, threatens, disparages or vilifies another person on the basis of that person’s race, religion, colour, descent or national or ethic origin…
How crap and depressing it would be if this became standard practice at all international games. But, in the world we live in these days, this could easily become the norm.
Your thoughts on the issue are welcome.
100 Comments »‘Jam this big bastard’
By Will 3 years ago, mid-December, 3 Comments »
Great piece from Peter English on Andrew Symonds and Adam Gilchrist’s use of the mic:
3 Comments »The same players who were frightened by the thought of allowing some of their language to be broadcast in Tests, particularly in South Africa and Bangladesh, where the effects microphones are usually more sensitive to fielding chatter, allowed an insight into their real lives. To see the men, who commentated a couple of overs without much intervention from their former team-mates in the Nine box, operate so candidly in a game they were treating fairly seriously was a shock. They displayed their personalities with thoughtful and revealing remarks alongside jokey-blokey jibes in a way that most athletes don’t – or won’t – during the short times granted for cliché-filled press conferences.
Symonds and Sreesanth boxing bout?
By Will 3 years ago, at the start of December, 6 Comments »
Andrew Symonds and S Sreesanth, who had a catty fight two months ago, are being lined up to take part in a boxing match at the end of the Australian summer, according to secondsout.com, a boxing website.
While he wouldn’t confirm or deny the proposal to SecondsOut on Tuesday, after the suggested cross football code fight between Willie Mason from the NRL and Barry Hall from the AFL fell through, rumour has it that Angelo Hyder is now trying to make a boxing match at the end of the summer between Andrew Symonds from the Australian cricket team and his fiery Indian fast bowling rival Shanthakumaran Sreesanth. The two had some animated verbal exchanges during the last Australian one day match tour of India in October and more is expected when the four Test match series between the teams begins in Melbourne on Boxing Day.
Symonds would flatten him like a pancake, wouldn’t he?
6 Comments »Bill Lawry: it’s backyard cricket war
By Will 3 years ago, at the end of October, 4 Comments »
Any excuse to put up a video involving Bill Lawry, the most impersonated man at Cricinfo Towers. Ford, who sponsor all Cricket Australia vehicular needs, are declaring “Backyard Cricket War” on the country. I’m not quite sure what that means, but there are two videos to show featuring Michael Clarke, Andrew Symonds, Mike Hussey…and Matthew Hayden in an apron.
Look out for Bill’s cameo at the end of the second.
One-zip
As ever, visit the site if you can’t see the videos above.[via]
4 Comments »Harbhajan and Symonds find resolution
By Will 3 years ago, at the end of October, 1 Comment »
I don’t know why but Harbhajan Singh and Andrew Symonds appear to have settled their differences. They’ve hooked up with a couple of lady friends and decided that the best way to resolve their spat is with a damn good dance. Click here if you can’t see it below (takes a while to load).
1 Comment »Notes from the pavilion for October 20th
By Will 3 years ago, mid-October, No Comments; be the first!
Links of note from the past 24 hours:
- Trevin Bastiampillai – What a brilliant name
- Howard gives $6.5m for Bradman museum –
- Don and Pup bring cricket history to life – Clarke does the one-stump trick ala Bradman in an Australian TV commercial. Anyone got the video to share?
- Strain tells on Symonds – Victimisation by the media? This is out of control
Notes from the pavilion for October 17th
By Will 3 years ago, mid-October, 1 Comment »
Links of note from the past 24 hours:
- Cricinfo – Monkey chants controversy in Mumbai too – This is becoming increasingly uncomfortable…
- Cricinfo – Jones set for Worcestershire move – Is this the most expensive hospital pass in cricket transfer history? Come on…how long will he last, seriously?
- Cricinfo – Harmison signs for Lions – This will be worth keeping a close eye on
- The ageless Kim Barnett – He’s still going strong. At 47
