The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Symonds’s desire

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Monday, Dec 10, 2007
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Symonds’s desire

Melbourne: Michael Clarke maybe the natural heir to Australian captain Ricky Ponting but belligerent all-rounder Andrew Symonds revealed he too cherishes the ambition of leading the side, even if it is just in the one-dayers.

Symonds reckons Clarke stood the best chance to succeed Ponting when it comes to Test captaincy but feels he has matured a lot over the years and can lead the side in one-dayers.

“It’s great to see Michael Clarke’s rise in Australian cricket. But when I do sit down and think about it I would also love the chance to captain my country,” Symonds wrote in Sunday Herald Sun.

“...I think he’ll (Clarke) be the ideal successor to Ricky Ponting as captain of the Test side — although I joked with him recently that if I were skipper, there’d be no diamond earrings in my team.

“Behind the banter, I thought about my personal development, my status within the Australian side and the longer-term goals I’d like to achieve,” Symonds said.

“To be honest, I would love to get the chance to captain the Australian one-day team,” added the all-rounder.

Symonds said he was pretty shy as a kid but claimed he had gained a lot of understanding in the recent past.

“...in the past few years I’ve come a long way as a player and a person. Tactically, I find myself thinking about the game a lot more. I try to summarise the game in small segments.

“On the field, I think about what I’d do in certain situations and how I’d handle them if I had the final say,” he said, buttressing his case.

Commands respect

Symonds said he often talked to Ponting on certain issues and also commanded respect among teammates, something a captain should have. — Agencies

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