Cricket’s pampered culture takes away players’ hunger: Symonds Baggy green cap malaise

ANDREW Symonds has lashed out at the culture of modern cricket and claims it has eroded the treasured status of the baggy green cap.

The former all- rounder says the pampered Australians have lost the hunger to reach the pinnacle of Test cricket.

According to Symonds, Cricket Australia’s claims of transparency in the wake of the damning cultural review is ridiculous and he has called on administrators to urgently re- store trust across the game, or fall on their swords.

CA independent review is 145 pages long and contains 42 recommendations. But Symonds succinctly sums up the cultural crisis.

“As a kid growing up, you wanted to play Test cricket. That hunger, I believe is gone,” he said.

“Not from all players, but from some. They’re happy to go around the world and just play white ball cricket.

“Why wouldn’t you want to try and play Test cricket for your country? I suppose the answer they don’t have any drive to do it.

“Financially they can earn a very good living and not even have to worry about that.”

Symonds spotlights the breakdown in trust between players and administrators as the long- term trend of CA pulling players in and out of Shield matches willy- nilly like it’s an amateur league.

CA argues that this is only done when it’s in the interests of the national team, but Symonds is adamant the way to truly serve the Test side is to stop making the once hardnosed State competition a Mickey Mouse training field.

“Soft landings”, Symonds argues, is a blight on the game.

“There’s so many employees and so many boxes that have to be ticked every day.

“If you don’t want to play for your country, go and do something else.

“Yes, you’re going to get tired and sore. And yes, that’s got to be managed.

“But do we really have to pamper and pander to these blokes that badly that this where we’re at?

“Cricket Australia pulling blokes out of Shield games and putting blokes in. That’s not in the rules. That’s not how you is do it. That’s now how you go about it.

“If I was Queensland captain ( a few years ago when Mitchell Starc was injected for one innings for NSW to prepare for a Test) I would have walked off the field.

“That’s a slap in the face. If a bloke isn’t finishing a game, he doesn’t play. It’s that simple.

“When I see that stuff going on I think, there is something going to go wrong here very soon. If you’re allowing that sort of behaviour to go on then you’re asking for trouble.”