Already weakened without three of their stars, Australia have sent Andrew Symonds home for undisclosed reasons.

The all-rounder, who was disciplined by Cricket Australia during Australia's ill-fated tour of England three years ago for arriving on the morning of a game drunk, will not play any part in the three-match one-day series against Bangladesh.

With skipper Ricky Ponting (wrist), opener Matthew Hayden (Achilles) and fast bowler Brett Lee (personal reasons) all unavailable, stand-in skipper Michael Clarke would have been looking to the likes of Symonds to lead the charge.

But CA released a statement on Saturday morning, just hours before the opening match of the series at Darwin's TIO Stadium, revealing that Symonds was sent packing 'following a recommendation by the team leadership group ... late on Friday night'.

With no replacement immediately named, CA will hold a media conference after Saturday's match in which they will provide 'details relating to Symonds' departure'.

The explosive batsman, who earlier this week was dubbed by Australian coach Mike Young as the Usain Bolt of cricket for his athleticism in the field, was left out of Australia's team in 2005 when it went on to suffer a shock loss to Bangladesh in Cardiff.

This is Australia's first match since the team's successful tour of the West Indies in July.

Paul Marsh, the chief executive of the Australian Cricketers' Association, said the latest incident was unexpected but the ACA would do everything it could to get him back into the Australia team. "It was a surprise," Marsh said, "but there were issues last summer that have been well documented.

"Our role is obviously we're here to support Andrew. We've been in discussion with his manager and look to put in place the best possible support for him."

Australia maintain that a break from the game is in Symonds' best interests as well as for the good of the team, although nobody knows how long his lay-off will be. His attitude over the past few months has troubled the squad's senior figures and the coach Tim Nielsen said the fishing expedition was simply a trigger point.

"They [usually] don't miss a thing and they are always early and presented as well as they possibly can," Nielsen said. "When somebody hasn't got the information that they need or hasn't turned up on time it's usually due to the fact they're away from us and the group a little bit, mentally. That always raises concerns."

While Cricket Australia said it would do whatever it could to help Symonds, the unusual situation means it is not clear what he must do to prove his commitment. "There's no prescribed, exact process for these sorts of things," Marsh said. "We just need to get to the bottom of things and work out what's the best way to move forward."

9:33 AM
Categories: Cricket. Author: SacHu