By IANS,
Sydney : Australia’s specialist fielding coach Mike Young says all-rounder Andrew Symonds is Usain Bolt of fieldsmen, the best all-round athlete for strength, power and speed in cricket.
Young feels that the Queensland cricketer is so athletically gifted that he could have played any sport and been a success — including American Major League baseball. “He’s in a place of his own, he’s that good an athlete, in many ways like Bolt,” Young quoted as saying the Daily Telegraph.
Jamaican wonder Bolt was elevated to a world of his own following his world record gold medal feats in the sprints at the Beijing Olympics.
Young, who has coached at the highest level including Australia’s Olympic baseballers, believes Symonds is in the same stratosphere as a fielder.
“When you talk about Symonds it’s like talking about Bradman as a batsman or Ponting as a batsman,” said Young, who is Australia’s fielding coach for a seventh straight summer.
“Johnty Rhodes was good, real good,” said Young. “Ricky Ponting is real good, Michael Clarke is real good, but none of those guys have the flat out, brute athletic power and strength of Symonds.”