JOIN USSoon after the all-rounder was ordered home two days before the team’s opener against the West Indies following ‘alcohol-related incidents’, CA general manger of public affairs Peter Young provided partial detail about what exactly happened.
“Broadly speaking, he broke team rules. He broke team rules by going out when he wasn’t suppose to, by...leaving the hotel without advising where he had gone, all of that is in breach to team rules,” Young told Radio 3AW.
Symonds was believed to have had a couple of drinks with team-mates while watching Queensland in the rugby league state in a breach of his rehabilitation programme prescribed by CA.
Whether that prompted the decision or something happened later when the Australian team went for a dinner hosted by the Professional Cricketers Association is not very clear, but Young said it was the ‘final straw’.
“The concern we had is that it comes out of a long series of indiscretions and it was in breach of some very specific commitments he made before we approved that he undertake this tour to England,” said Young.
“The indiscretion by itself was not major and if it had been any other player, it would have been a disciplinary issue that would have happened and the world would have moved on without a hiccup,” he said.
Australian cricketers are required to get security clearance to leave the hotel but obviously Symonds did not pay heed.
He also hinted that it was unlikely Symonds’ contract, which ends on June 30, would be renewed. “We’ve advised him that our willingness to offer him a contract for the next year is now on ice and we will need to resolve that in the next few days,” he said.