Entertainer Symonds up for One-Day Cup naming honours

Andrew Symonds' storied career as a giant of one-day cricket was played out in two distinct acts. 

By his own admission, prior to the 2003 World Cup in South Africa Symonds had found it frustratingly difficult to deliver on his undoubted all-round potential, either for Queensland or during a number of stints in national colours. 

But after his breakthrough century against Pakistan at Johannesburg that launched Australia's flawless 2003 Cup defence, he established himself as a powerhouse of the white-ball game and a worthy candidate to have his name on the Domestic One-Day Trophy. 

"That one innings turned around my career," Symonds wrote in 'Roy: Going for Broke' of the 143 he scored from 125 balls after Australia went into the match without three frontline stars and were then reduced to 4-86 in their tournament opener. 

"It was like I'd been ordering drinks at the Last-Chance Saloon on credit and then bang! I'd won the lottery." 

Despite his freakish talent and a reputation earned in state and national under-age teams, Symonds could not have made a less auspicious start to his senior limited-overs career. 

Called up as a last-minute addition for Queensland's one-day cup game against South Australia at Adelaide Oval in February 1994, the England-born prodigy scored five from 17 balls and dropped a catch at point off Darren Lehmann who plundered 76no in SA's 10-wicket win. 

Four single-figure scores in his first six 50-over outings for Queensland meant Symonds was not able to secure a spot in the strong Bulls line-up until two years later when he plundered 85 from 89 balls against a star-strewn Western Australia at the WACA Ground. 

That was also the summer then-Queensland coach John Buchanan suggested the aggressive batter and gun fielder also try his hand at medium-pace bowling to add further value to his game, sparking Symonds' evolution to all-rounder. 

Deployed in a strong Bulls middle-order behind Matthew Hayden, Trevor Barsby, Martin Love and Jimmy Maher, Symonds regularly found himself at the crease in the desperate final overs and went a further 28 domestic one-day innings before posting a second half-century. 

But his ball-striking ability had been noticed by the Australia selectors who handed him a one-day international cap during the 1998 tour of Pakistan. 

In 38 ODI innings prior to that epochal World Cup game at Wanderers, Symonds averaged a modest 23.81 with the bat (albeit with a strike rate of 96 per 100 balls faced) which was not dissimilar to his domestic record at the same time – average 25.70, strike rate 95. 

His inclusion in Australia's 2003 World Cup squad came after some influential lobbying from Buchanan (now national coach) and newly installed skipper Ricky Ponting, though such was the team's playing depth Symonds was expected to play an auxiliary role. 

However, suspensions incurred by Lehmann and Shane Warne and an injury to Michael Bevan meant the squad's depth was tested in their first game as was their mettle when Symonds joined Ponting in the middle in the 16th over. 

Facing an attack led by Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Shoaib Akhtar, and with a previous international high score of 68 almost four years earlier, few foresaw what would unfold. 

But Ponting and Buchanan believed they had found a means to unlock Symonds' innate ability and, in the process, launched him as a global one-day superstar. 

As Ponting noted in his autobiography, Buchanan's assessment was Symonds' had not previously been provided with direction as to his specific role within the Australia set-up. 

"Symmo's play suggested he saw himself as a big hitter who bowled a few overs, but he had the ability to be much more than that, so Buck (Buchanan) and I sat him down and told him he was good enough to build an innings," Ponting wrote. 

The turnaround from that day was extraordinary. 

Symonds would go on to play a further 122 ODI innings for Australia in which he almost doubled his batting average (from 23.8 to 45.0) while maintaining a strike rate above 90. 

Throughout his 11-year ODI career in 2009 he became one of only three Australia men's players – alongside Steve Waugh and Shane Watson - to complete the 1500-run, 100-wicket double. 

Of the 22 all-rounders worldwide to have achieved that rare milestone in the 50-over game's 54-year history, only Pakistan's Shahid Afridi (117.06) can claim a more explosive batting strike rate than Symonds' 92.46. 

In addition to his destructive batting and handy bowling, which evolved from medium-pace to off-spin, Symonds was brilliant as both infielder and outfielder with Ponting describing him as "like a tiger shark in the covers or at mid-wicket". 

Such was his value to Australia's limited-overs outfit, Symonds' one-day appearances for Queensland became rarer after his breakthrough World Cup but he was integral to the Bulls when available. 

His batting strike rate of 94.5 is bettered by only five players to have scored 1500 runs or more in the domestic competition (Symonds finished with 1803 runs at an average of 27.74 from 77 matches). 

And his 62no from 35 balls faced against Tasmania at Launceston in 2005 remains the highest strike rate in any innings of 50-plus by a Queensland batter in the one-day cup. 

Symonds also claimed 3-45 and a catch in that six-wicket win, but was pipped for player of the match honours by teammate James Hopes who returned 73 (from 46 balls) and 2-49. 

Given his contributions to both Queensland and Australia in the 50-over format, and the prototype for the modern all-round cricketer he came to provide, the chance to have Symonds' name permanently inscribed on the domestic one-day cup is justly deserved.