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Andrew Symonds may have missed the Australian cricket squad bus but he doesn’t miss out when it comes to marketablity.
The popular Test allrounder cracked the top 10 of Australia’s most marketable sports people for the first time this week just a day after being fined for sleeping in and missing the team bus to training in Barbados.
Symonds was ranked 10th on the Sweeney Sports Report list, with skipper Ricky Ponting at No.1 for the second year running.
Six of the top 10 were current or past cricketers, with recently retired wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist coming in at No.2, fast bowler Brett Lee at five, former quick Glenn McGrath six, and ex-captain Steve Waugh at nine.
Swimmers Grant Hackett (three) and Ian Thorpe (four), soccer star Harry Kewell (seven), and former tennis world No.1 Patrick Rafter (eight) also featured in the top 10.
Other cricketers included on the list were retired spin king Shane Warne (15), and recently appointed Australian vice-captain Michael Clarke (equal 20th).
Ponting’s team faced a public backlash over the summer for their involvement in several controversial incidents during a heated Test and one-day series against India, yet the Sweeney report claimed that summer of discontent had done little to dent the team’s image.
Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland said the study showed 82 per cent of Australians thought the players were good role models for children.
“Other recent research shows cricket is the most watched sport on TV. Australians love their cricket and this is a tribute to the players’ on field success, but also to the way they carry themselves,” Sutherland said.
While enough to draw a fine from the team leadership group, Symonds’ failure to make the team bus on time for training on Tuesday is unlikely to tarnish that image.
A team spokesman today confirmed Symonds missed the bus by 10 minutes, but did not miss any part of practice after finding his own way to Kensington Oval.
He was fined an undisclosed amount by the team’s leadership group in Barbados – consisting of Ponting, Clarke, coach Tim Nielsen and manager Steve Bernard – with the penalty believed to be $3000, according to The Australian newspaper.
No further action will be taken.
Pace bowler Stuart Clark said the players supported the fine.
“It just shouldn’t happen, we’re professional cricketers, it’s not as though he didn’t know, he was well advised, we’re all well advised what time we need to be where, but look it’s just not good enough and he knows that and the team penalised accordingly,” Clark told Sydney radio 2KY.
It is the second time this tour an Australian player has been fined for missing the team bus. Now retired leg-spinner Stuart MacGill reportedly docked his entire match fee of $13,000 for arriving late on day two of the second Test against the West Indies in Antigua.
On the 2005 Ashes tour, Symonds was fined $8000 and suspended for two one-day games after arriving the worse for wear on the morning of a one-day match against Bangladesh in Wales.
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