Andrew Symonds Calls Time On Cricket Career

Andrew Symonds Calls Time On Cricket Career

Andrew Symonds has retired from cricket. He is pictured here during one of his final engagements as an Australia player during the warm-up games ahead of the 2009 ICC World Twenty20

©REUTERS / Action Images

Former Australia, Queensland, Deccan Chargers, Mumbai Indans, Gloucestershire, Kent, Lancashire and Surrey all-rounder Andrew Symonds has announced his immediate retirement from cricket.

Symonds, a powerful middle-order batsman and versatile bowler, played 26 Tests, 198 One-Day Internationals and 14 Twenty20 Internationals during an often chequered career.

He was a World Cup winner in 2003 and 2007 and scored his maiden Test century during Australia's landmark 5-0 Ashes series win over England in 2006/7.

However, for all his undoubted talent, he was frequently making the news for his behaviour off it.

He was at the centre of the 2008 race row between India and Australia that threatened to end a tour after he accused Harbhajan Singh of racially abusing him and later that year he was sent home from a series against Bangladesh after missing a team meeting.

He was finally dropped from the Australian squad in 2009 after he broke team rules. He had also verbally abused Brendon McCullum during a radio interview in January prior to the tournament.

Born in Birmingham in England, Symonds began his career with Queensland in 1994, earning a county contract with Gloucestershire in 1995. His early performances caught the attention of the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) who selected him for an 'A' tour only for Symonds to pull out, instead choosing to pursue a career with Australia.

It turned out to be a wise choice and three years later he made his ODI debut against Pakistan in Lahore, going on to score 5,088 runs at 39.75 with six centuries as well as taking 133 wickets with a combination of medium pace and off breaks.

A brutally aggressive batsman and an outstanding fielder, he played key roles in Australia's 2003 and 2007 World Cup successes before he made his Test debut in 2004 in Sri Lanka.

Failing to impress, he was dropped after two matches but a combination of injury and poor form for other batsmen allowed him a second chance in 2005 and after Damien Martyn retired during the 2006/7 Ashes series, he was again recalled.

He answered his critics with an innings of 156 in the fifth and final Test at Sydney as Australia sealed a rare 5-0 series whitewash.

He went on to score a career-best 162 not out in the same Sydney Test in which he and Harbhajan exchanged words and after leaving Gloucesteshire in 1996, went on to play for Kent between 1999 and 2004, Lancashire in 2005 and then for Surrey on a short-term Twenty20 contract in 2010.

Since cutting his ties with Queensland, he has featured solely for the Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League but confirmed in a statement that he will not be playing out the final year of his contract.

In all he played 227 first-class matches, 424 one-day games and 93 Twenty20 matches.

© Cricket World 2012