Andrew Symonds unloads on 'horse s**t' Cricket Australia
Andrew Symonds has taken a brutal swipe at Cricket Australia as the fallout from a scathing cultural review continues.
The former Test batsman is fuming over Cricket Australia’s treatment of Sheffield Shield, seeing a huge disconnect between the elite level and grassroots game.
One of the key recommendations from the independent review published on Monday was for Cricket Australia to place more emphasis on their top-tier players playing Sheffield Shield and grade cricket.
The recommendation was floated as a way to improve team culture, but Cricket Australia has failed to respond as of yet.
Symonds expressed his disappointed at CA’s response to a request that international players play a minimum of two Shield games per season.
“That sounds like an excuse to me,” he told Fox Sports.
“I don’t see the problem with that. It’s not a big ask.”
Symonds also slammed CA’s claims of transparency in light of the review’s findings, telling The Daily Telegraph it was “the biggest load of horse s*** you’ve ever heard in your life.”
Symonds referenced a Shield match last year, when Mitchell Starc was added to the game for one innings to prepare for a Test match, to show how CA was “playing god”.
“Cricket Australia playing God to the game and pulling blokes out of Shield games and putting blokes in,” he said.
“That’s not in the rules. That’s not how you do it. That’s not how you go about it.
“That’s a slap in the face. If a bloke isn’t finishing a game, he doesn’t play. It’s that simple.”
Symonds slams ‘corny’ Players’ Pact
Symonds’ latest comments come after he also stuck the boot into the new Players’ Pact revealed by Australian captain Tim Paine.
“We recognise how lucky we are to play this great game. We respect the game and its traditions. We want to make all Australians proud,” the pact declares.
“Compete with us. Smile with us. Fight on with us. Dream with us.”
Symonds said the statement reeked of desperation on the part of his compatriots.
“That to me appears as though it’s a panic tactic,” Symonds said on Fox Sports’ Back Page.
“The boys have said ‘you’ve got to come up with something, you’ve got to be seen to be making an effort.’
“And it’s a bit corny, isn’t it? That’s not the Australian cricket way in my opinion.
“They could have come up with something a lot better than that, or as I said, they need to sit down and nut some of these things out.”
