[VIDEOS] Andrew Symonds Dies In Car Crash

[Savak]

It was sad how his career came to a crashing end. The monkey gate episode created a permanent divide bw Symonds, his fellow Australian team mates and Cricket Australia. He was a very vital cog of the Invincible Australian team from 1999 to 2007.

 

[Savak]

Am reading he was prepared to take a big pay cut from Cricket Australia in exchange for lesser obligations to attend corporate sponsorship meetings, press conferences and to be allowed to go fishing and drinking. You don't see that pretty often. He shifted to the country side and was very happy, content there

 

[silentkiller187]

Andrew Symonds' life will be celebrated by former teammates with a no-jacket, no-tie memorial service in Townsville on Friday, almost two weeks after the cricket star's death.

Symonds' family confirmed on Monday that a public memorial would take place for the former Test and limited-overs champion close to his home in North Queensland.

Ian Healy, Adam Gilchrist, Darren Lehmann, Jimmy Maher and Matthew Mott will be among those to speak at the memorial, with poet and friend Rupert McCall to also deliver a poem.

The Riverway Stadium event will also be live-streamed at the Queensland Cricketers' Club at the Gabba, Symonds' old home ground with Queensland.

The allrounder's family and friends will gather for a private funeral service on Friday morning before the memorial, which comes with a dress code of 'definitely no jacket and tie required'.

Details of the memorial come after a week of tributes for Symonds, who died aged 46 when his car left the road and rolled in Hervey Range, about 50km from Townsville on May 14.

Several former Queensland players have spent the past week together with the Bulls Masters charity and public speaking group, supporting each other in the aftermath of his shock death.

Current players have also continued to speak of their admiration for the gifted cricketer, who played 26 Tests and won two one-day World Cups in 2003 and 2007.

It was in the limited-overs game where the man they called 'Roy' really excelled, dazzling crowds with his athletic fielding and big hitting, clobbering 5088 runs and taking 133 wickets in 198 ODIs.

Fans have also paid tribute to one of the sport's most marketable stars of the early 21st century, leaving fishing rods and cricket balls at the front of their homes.

Symonds is survived by wife Laura and young children Chloe and Billy.

The service will begin at 2.30pm (gates open at 2pm) and will be live-streamed, with broadcast details to be confirmed.

https://www.cricket.com.au/news/and...ium-live-stream-gabba-car-accident/2022-05-23

 

[MenInG]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="und" dir="ltr">Roy <a href="https://t.co/0ua5ZOOmEa">pic.twitter.com/0ua5ZOOmEa</a></p>— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) <a href="https://twitter.com/cricketcomau/status/1530039785573650433?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 27, 2022</a></blockquote>
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[MenInG]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">'Loyal, beyond belief and just good fun.' | Close friends Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Mott share memories of Andrew Symonds. <a href="https://t.co/i5UfUltoU6">pic.twitter.com/i5UfUltoU6</a></p>— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) <a href="https://twitter.com/cricketcomau/status/1530054120136122368?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 27, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[MenInG]

Those who were close to him reckon, had he had the choice, Andrew Symonds would've likely skipped all this hoopla and gone fishing.

Later, he'd have felt the urge to join proceedings, unwilling to let the chance to share some ales and tales with old mates – in his hometown, no less – pass him by. He might've even settled in 'til stumps, a raised eyebrow and a wry enquiry questioning his allies when they dared to head off in the small hours: 'What, you not having fun?'

But all of this – the outpouring of emotion, and the tears and the tributes – it might've best been skipped. Such things sat a little uneasily with Symonds through his playing career, and it stayed the case until the very end.

And today, on a perfect blue-sky autumn day in Townsville, as the cricket world turned its attention to one man, as a who’s who of our sport descended on Riverway Stadium for a couple of beautiful memorials, both private and public, it wasn't difficult to imagine that as being exactly where he was – some faraway uncharted fishing spot, where the barra had been biting since dawn.

"The amount of fishing trips that I knocked back because we all got too busy," recalled his close mate Matthew Mott, "you'd just love the opportunity to go back out there and do that again with him. He's going to be missed a lot."

Undoubtedly Mott spoke for dozens of Symonds' mates. It was mid-morning when they began pouring in, a list of cricketing luminaries filing off a bus the first to arrive: Ponting, Gilchrist, Border, Healy, Lehmann, Watson, Harris and Hogg among them.

A few minutes later, in came Brett Lee, and then, wandering across the neighbouring footy oval in fits and starts across the next half hour came Glenn McGrath, Mitchell Johnson, Mark Waugh, Brad Haddin, Jason Gillespie, Stuart MacGill, Joe Dawes, Michael Kasprowicz and Wade Seccombe. Last to arrive among the cricketing royalty was the Prince himself, Brian Charles Lara, while Queensland rugby league legends Darren Lockyer and Gorden Tallis also made their way through the entrance to Riverbank, the venue that Symonds had so proudly seen opened in his backyard almost a decade earlier.

Gilchrist later recounted how Symonds' mum, Barb, had left "not a dry eye in the house" in regaling the private audience with stories from Andrew's childhood, offering in the process an insight into the man they had previously not been privy to.

Jimmy Maher, who like Mott had been thick with Symonds since they had met at a schoolboys carnival in their teens, directly addressed his dear old mate's children, Chloe and Billy, in what Gilchrist described as "one of the most beautiful eulogies you could ever imagine" that put an exclamation point on the magnitude of this loss.

"He looked the kids in the eye and delivered a message of what he thought Roy would want him to say," Gilchrist said. "It was really touching, really moving."

Matthew Hayden couldn't be present but his wife Kelly and daughter Gracie represented their family, and Hayden himself sent via video a song he penned and performed for his fellow Queenslander, the man with whom he shared on-field achievements and off-field misadventures that are both firmly entrenched in Australian legend.

As the private ceremony came to a close and guests retreated into the grandstand for the wake, the queue awaiting the public tribute was already beginning to snake its way around the perimeter of the venue. They trickled in across the next couple of hours, slowly at first and then more steadily, most from around town and some from as far afield as Brisbane and beyond.

"He was obviously a great mate of mine but I think everyone felt like they knew Simmo," said Mott. "I think that's why there's so much public outpouring (of emotion)."

And so they came to honour their mate Roy, a superman and an everyman at once. This English-born, Queensland-reared cricketing pioneer. A man who everyone wanted a piece of, but who revelled instead in solitude and close company. A husband and father, son and brother. And a teammate, of course, and it was a number of those men – Ponting, Gilchrist, Lehmann and Healy – who brought some levity to proceedings when they jumped on stage and shared their memories to the world of the man they viewed universally as their first picked in any side.

The tributes ended with a brilliantly crafted piece from renowned poet Rupert McCall, one Symonds himself had taken a liking to and had, McCall revealed, occasionally phoned the lyricist late at night with a recite request to he and his mates after a few beers.

Mott heads off to England next week to begin a new coaching adventure, one he knows for which Symonds would've offered him ribbings and encouragement in equal measure. He takes with him part of Symonds, in both a professional and personal sense.

"He's a prototype for the modern-day player, where you've got to free them up and let them play," Mott told cricket.com.au this week. "They're gonna make some mistakes, but they're gonna win you matches as well.

"So when I think about coaching, I think about how I'd coach Simmo a lot … not put too many restraints around him, and not to put too many shackles on him. I think that's really the legacy he's left for me.

"But also that sense of, when it's time to work hard, you work bloody hard. And when it's time to relax and spend time with family and friends, you need to do that as well."

Which is what those close to him have done in his honour. Healy, who was a senior teammate of Symonds' at the Bulls and who expertly hosted this public tribute, offered a thought early in the piece that rung true throughout.

"None of us are quite sure whether Roy would've liked this or not," he mused. "He didn't rate pomp or ceremony."

Perhaps, after all is said and done, he'd have made an exception today.

https://www.cricket.com.au/news/and...um-townsville-mott-maher-gilchrist/2022-05-27

 

[silentkiller187]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Friends of Andrew Symonds have been paying tribute to the former Australia all-rounder, who died earlier this month at the age of 46 <a href="https://t.co/vNiqDCr4Zl">pic.twitter.com/vNiqDCr4Zl</a></p>— Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket) <a href="https://twitter.com/SkyCricket/status/1530119626826334208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 27, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[MenInG]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">'He would do anything if it meant giving his mates a better chance of winning the game.'<br><br>Ricky Ponting recalls how Andrew Symonds just wanted to keep batting even after tearing his bicep off just weeks before the 2007 World Cup. <a href="https://t.co/wBiF5FjnsK">pic.twitter.com/wBiF5FjnsK</a></p>— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) <a href="https://twitter.com/cricketcomau/status/1530103513451315201?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 27, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[MenInG]

Former Australia all-rounder Shane Watson has spoken glowingly of Andrew Symonds and declared the late Queenslander the greatest teammate he ever had.

Speaking with Isa Guha on the latest episode of The ICC Review, Watson recalled many fond memories the pair had shared on and off the field prior to the late all-rounder's shock death in Queensland at the age of 46 last month.

Watson said Symonds made all his teammates stand tall on the cricket field and he was often the glue that helped keep the side and its many different characters intact off the field.

"You felt bulletproof when you played in the same team as Andrew Symonds," Watson said on the most recent episode of The ICC Review. Having him at point and just knowing he always had your back no matter what. And to bat with him was something very special.

"It is shattering to think he is not with us anymore. I look back at old footage I have seen over the last couple of weeks and (shaking head) he was so good, just so incredibly good. And to go with it one of the best teammates you could ever have."

Symonds' untimely passing comes on the back of the death of two Australian cricketing greats earlier this year, with legendary leg-spinner Shane Warne and champion wicketkeeper Rod Marsh also passing away in unfortunate circumstances.

Watson and Guha shook their heads in dismay at the poor few months that Australia cricket has endured, and hoped that the cricketing community around the world would come together once again following the loss of Symonds.

"His poor two kids, such beautiful kids and they adored their dad as well,” Watson said. "We need to make sure we rally around his family as much as we can, as I know he would do that for us.”

Guha echoed Watson’s sentiments. "Just thinking of his friends and his family and his beautiful kids as well … I am sure everyone will be there to support," Guha said.

"Not just the Australian cricketing community, but also the wider community around the world."

Watson said there weren’t many players born with the same ability as Symonds and even compared the burly all-rounder to West Indies great Sir Vivian Richards.

"He was very much Viv Richards reincarnated in the way he played," Watson noted. "Even before I played against him you always heard about this big, powerful, six-hitting batter who could do everything and who was an amazing athlete.

"His ability to bowl spin and medium pace, he was one of the best fielders to ever play. His all-round ability was something we haven’t seen much of and won’t see much of again."

Asked for one standout memory of Symonds' ability, Watson recalled a domestic Sheffield Shield match the pair played together for Queensland against Western Australia at the WACA Ground in Perth, where Symonds got on top of experienced left-arm spinner Brad Hogg.

"He (Symonds) always thought spin was there just to be smashed out of the ground and this was on show during a game when we were batting together at the WACA for Queensland," Watson fondly recalled.

"I was facing Brad Hogg and I was just sort of waiting for a loose ball. I got through a couple of overs not scoring much, and (I thought) Brad was bowling OK.

"Andrew Symonds in between the overs just came up to me and said, 'If you don’t get me on strike for the next over, I am going to run you out'.

"He was just sick of me blocking them.

"Then I got him on strike and the next two balls from Brad Hogg were just launched straight into the stand at the WACA.

"He just thought spin was just there to get smashed and he had the skill to be able to back that up as well.”

Guha spoke just as fondly of Symonds, dwelling on the time they had spent working together as commentators recently in Australia.

"We have lost two unbelievable people from cricket, alongside Rod Marsh not long before that, and I still can’t quite believe what is going on, it doesn't feel real," Guha said.

"He (Symonds) was actually a shoulder to cry on in the aftermath of the Shane Warne (news) as we were working together in broadcast and we were just trying to keep each others' spirits up.

"It just doesn’t feel real and is hard to comprehend really what has happened."

 

[Hassan A]

Pakistan team spend time with Will Symonds, son of late Andrew Symonds

 

[Junaids]

Pakistan team spend time with Will Symonds, son of late Andrew Symonds

Kudos to Adam Hollioake for arranging this today.

The Public Relations coup is astonishing. I’ve seen two Aussie grown men cry today at clips of this on TV.

I know I’m no fan of Hafeez, but these Pakistanis are the most popular visiting tourists in Australia for many, many years.

Well done Adam Hollioake and the PCB.