Most people who believe they know Symonds well agree he’s the man to have by your side when the fight’s turned ugly—and a man to keep your distance from when he’s your enemy’s best friend. They also say Symmo’s companionship dispels loneliness and makes up for chums who aren’t there. Jimmy Maher, who’s played with him for Queensland and Australia, says Symonds is the man "I’d like to have with me in the trenches".
Combat imagery apart, there’s a fair bit of male bonding in this Aussie team—Symonds and Michael Clarke once drove from Sydney to Brisbane in a mobile home. "He probably realised that Clarke was a different character from him, and that he could toughen him a bit, show him the bush," Ian Healy, also of the Australia/Queensland axis, said in a chat with Outlook. Andy Bichel, another teammate, adds he’s had great times fishing with the man they call Roy (a sobriquet he earned when an early coach of his thought he looked a bit like Australian basketball player Leroy Loggins.)
Thus, in Australia, Symonds has not lacked support and sympathy in the wake of the race row that began during last October’s tour to India. The suggestion that he incited the row with Harbhajan Singh at the Sydney Test was received with indignation, and friends and teammates have all ranged behind him. Symonds’ only fault, they say, is that he stands up for his friends, which has got him into trouble in the past.
A close associate of Symonds at Queensland narrates a chilling story. "Well, he got into a slight disagreement with a rugby player in South Africa," he says. "Let’s say they did not see eye to eye on a certain matter—How do you think Andrew sought to settle it? He said he’d prefer to handle it ‘man-to-man’, fight it out!"
What could easily have descended into gladiatorial bloodletting was averted by a cooler man present—the young Michael ‘Pup’ Clarke. "Andrew’s philosophy in life is rather basic," says his associate. "But he’s also a free spirit who likes nothing better than to hook up his boat to go fishing or crabbing."
The huntsman also likes to chase and ‘despatch’ wild pigs—with a knife. He owns two hunting dogs who join him in pursuit of game in his Ford Ranger pick-up. Trailing fish and crabs on the sea, Symmo uses the big boat he owns with Matthew Hayden, or his own small boat, a ‘tinnie’ in local parlance. For the burly all-rounder, say friends, the call of the wild is irresistible. Not surprisingly, the 32-year-old owns a large house—"with commanding views," as a friend puts it—outside Brisbane. He likes to be left alone. He was the last among his friends to get a mobile phone, as he did not wish to be always on call. He’d love to get away and deal with his own kind, says Bichel, "turn to cane farming, to go back to where he came from."
Bichel’s reference to cane farming alludes to Symonds’ Caribbean roots—born in Birmingham, UK, one of his biological parents was a West Indian. He was subsequently adopted by a white couple who moved to Queensland, Australia, when he was three months old. This background explains Symonds’ sensitivity to racial slurs. Symonds had the option of playing for England, being born there, but dreamt of donning the Aussie baggy green cap, which he did for the first time in 1998.
But before this, when his cricketing career wasn’t going anywhere, Symonds had seriously contemplated switching to rugby. He’s a rugby league fan and is good friends with several Brisbane Bronchos players; he’s even trained with them. Which all adds up to a rather absorbing personality, who’s gone from being a "cult hero to mainstream hero", according to Steve Gray, who worked with Symonds on his autobiography, Roy. "He’s different, and people sense that fast, especially kids," says Gray. "With his zinc cream, his dreadlocks, the untamed manner in which he plays the game, he stands out. Kids simply love him."
At the Gabba, in the indoor practice facility, Symonds has many admirers, young men who would love to emulate him. "He’s a funny bloke with a real sense of humour," says Steve. "He’s quite generous too, gives away gear to young players." When he’s got lots of crab and fish from the sea, he gives away some of that too, say his friends. The Gabba staff say Symonds is always ready with a drink or a joke when he’s around.
Then there are those who fear him—men like former Australia opener Justin Langer. "When you play against them, they make you feel like you murdered their mother," Langer said of Symonds, Simon Katich and Ricky Ponting in a newspaper interview. But Healy disagrees. "Yes, there’s a hard edge to his aggression, but he’s a typical Australian cricketer, no tougher than the others," he said. Adds Bichel, "It’s just that he’s got the body to match. He’s big and intimidating."
So, why would such a tough man go to the umpire with a complaint against a sporting foe? Though Symonds himself has said he is not really bothered about racial attacks, his friends say he was upset at Sydney because he believed a pact had been broken. "He’s not been worried about racist stuff in the past, but he believed that a pact (of not using the word monkey) that had been made with the Indians had been broken at Sydney," a close friend told Outlook. Healy also suspects that that could be the case.
The Sydney incident occurred, of course, after Symonds gave Harbhajan an earful. Respected Australian cricket writer Mike Coward believes there was more to it than met the eye: "As he’s become comfortable in the Test team, Symonds has become more outspoken," Coward told Outlook. "After India won the Twenty20 World Championship, he wrote a column questioning why the Indians rejoiced in such a manner. I would think that that would have angered a lot of Indians!"
After Harbahjan was absolved of the charge of making racist remarks, Symonds admitted to being "shattered". From an aggrieved accuser, he had been forced to turn into a defender of his honour. "All of a sudden I’m somehow getting the blame," he wrote in his newspaper column. "Anyone who knows me understands that I’m a very straight up and down bloke, what you see is what you get. So to have people saying I’m not playing cricket in the right spirit makes my blood boil," he wrote.
The trouble is that the Indians percieve Symonds only as an aggressive, abrasive cricketer, precluding the possibility of any off-field affinity. Which is a pity, for among friends, Symonds is genuine, his company is priceless.
