Cricket star Andrew Symonds dies in crash

Former Australian cricketer Andrew Symonds, who has died after a single-vehicle auto accident, was a bighitting allrounder who built a credible test career and was an exemplar of Australian sport's prized larrikin tradition. He was 46.

“Australian cricket has lost another of its very best. Andrew was a generational talent who was instrumental in Australia's success at World Cups and as part of Queensland's rich cricket history,” Cricket Australia chairman Lachlan Henderson said in a statement Sunday. “He was a cult figure to many (and) was treasured by his fans and friends.”

Cricket Australia reported details of Symonds' death on its website, citing a police statement with details of the accident late Saturday night near the northeastern city of Townsville, Queensland state.

It described Symonds as “a cult hero” and a “largerthan-life figure who drew a widespread fan base during his peak years for not only his hard-hitting ways but his larrikin persona.”

Symonds' wife, Laura, told the Courier-Mail newspaper that the family was in shock.

“He was such a big person and there is just so much of him in his kids,” she said.

Tall, broad-shouldered and dreadlocked, his face daubed in zinc cream, Symonds had an imposing physical presence. He was born in Birmingham, England to a father believed to be of Afro-Caribbean heritage. His adoptive parents moved to Australia when he was an infant.

Symonds was able to hit the ball exceptionally hard and some coaches early in his career dismissed him only as a big-hitter whose untempered appetite for sixes would limit his progress.

But he also could bowl sharp medium pace and off breaks and was an athletic fielder who was able to build a credible test career.

Symonds played 26 test matches for Australia from 2004-2008, posting two centuries, but he was better known as a limited-overs specialist. He played 198 one-day internationals for Australia and won World Cup titles in 2003 and 2007.