Tributes paid to cult figure Symonds

AUSTRALIAN cricket is in mourning once more after Andrew Symonds, a two-times World Cup winner, was killed in a car crash at the age of 46. The tragedy follows the deaths in March of former Test wicketkeeper Rod Marsh and leg-spinning legend Shane Warne, a friend of Symonds on the field and in the commentary box. Adam Gilchrist — another former team-mate — used the nickname by which Symonds was universally known. ‘Think of your most loyal, fun, loving friend who would do anything for you,’ he tweeted. ‘That’s Roy.’ Symonds was driving alone late on Saturday night about 30 miles from his home in Townsville when, according to Queensland police, his car ‘left the roadway and rolled’. Emergency services were unable to revive him. An all-rounder in the truest sense, he combined merciless batting power with a canny mixture of medium-pace and off-spin, and was a predatory presence in the covers. As news spread of his death, social media was quickly awash with compilation videos of his greatest direct-hit run-outs. At the 2003 World Cup, he rescued Australia from 86 for four against Pakistan with a blistering 143 off 125 balls — the first of six hundreds in 198 ODIs. He claimed a winner’s medal that year, and again four years later. He’d also established a reputation for doing things his way, and on tours of England in 2005 and 2009 got into trouble for excessive drinking. ‘He was a cult figure to many, treasured by his fans and friends,’ said Lachlan Henderson, the chair of Cricket Australia.