Matthew Mott, a former teammate of Andrew Symonds, has revealed how close the cricket legend came to representing England, saying the decision to play for Australia “fell on his moral compass”.
Born in Birmingham in 1975, Symonds was adopted by two English teachers, Barbara and Ken, and the family moved to Australia when he was younger.
When Symonds rose through the ranks of Australia in the early 1990’s, the infinitely talented Queenslander was on England’s radar, desperately trying to get him back to the country.
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The problem? Symonds felt Australia was his home when his cricketing career began.
Symonds made his county cricket debut with Gloucestershire in 1995 and was named Cricket Writers Club Young Cricketer of the Year after a stunning first season, featuring English cricket icons such as Ian Botham, Nasser Hussain, Andrew Flintoff, Alastair Cook, Joey Root and Stuart Broad.
In the all-rounder’s exceptional debut season, he was selected in the England squad for the tour of Pakistan, but Symonds turned down the offer instead of sticking to his dream of representing Australia.
According to Mutt, Symonds could have lost very well to Australia if he had not been as committed as he had dreamed of.
“He was born in Birmingham, so there must have been a tie. Barbara and Ken are very proud English people,” Mott said.
“For me, it came down to his moral compass, and he wanted to play for Australia, he was desperate to play for Australia. He loved Australia, he loved the bushes, he loved everything about Australia.
“For her, it was never a financial thing. A lot of money was thrown at her, but for her it was more about that journey of trying to fulfill her childhood dreams and nothing would come of it.
“At that stage a lot of people would have gone the other way because it was very tempting. He basically put it on a platter. He was actually below the Australian Peking Order at that stage. Summarizes him as a person. “
Rest, whatever they say, is history. Symonds has a remarkable career in all three formats of playing for Australia, scoring 6887 international runs in 238 international matches.
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