By IANS,
Sydney : Former Sri Lanka coach Tom Moody wonders why Andrew Symonds is playing for Queensland and not for Australia in the series against India even after apologising for going fishing instead of attending a compulsory team meeting in Darwin.
Moody, now Western Australia coach, thinks there is something fishy about the whole thing because if Symonds is good enough to play in domestic cricket, there is no reason why he should not be in the Test squad, more so when his explosive batting and off-spin were largely responsible for the team’s success in both forms of the game.
There was speculation whether Symonds would be flown out to India after spinner Bryce McGain and opening batsman Phil Jaques returned home with injuries, but Cricket Australia (CA) chief executive James Sutherland insisted that he should go back to domestic cricket before being picked for the national team.
“Without knowing the actual details of what the discipline is, the only thing we know as the public is that Andrew Symonds went fishing and missed a meeting,” said Moody, who is also the coach of Indian Premier League side Kings XI Punjab.
“If the undisclosed discipline is more than just missing the meeting, then he is in for a long lay-off from international cricket.”
“There’s obviously underlying reasons why Andrew Symonds is still here in Australia, otherwise if you are picking your best Australian team he should be one of the first guys to picked.