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Disgraced all-rounder Andrew Symonds says he can understand why cricket supporters are disappointed with how his international career ended.
Symonds was dumped by Cricket Australia this month after being sent home before the Twenty20 World Cup in England following the latest indiscretion involving the Queenslander and alcohol.
And the 34-year-old told the Nine Network SUnday night he is sympathetic to fans’ frustrations he has wasted his talent.
“Yeah I can, because I know how desperately I wanted to play for Australia,” he told the Sixty Minutes program.
“Still to this day I realise how lucky I am (to have played for Australia).”
Despite the string of off-field incidents involving alcohol costing Symonds his international career, he denied he was an alcoholic.
“I would drink too much, too fast, too quickly,” he said.
“I admit that too fast, too much became not too good to be around … aggressive.
“I’m not an alcoholic, I’ve been diagnosed as a binge drinker.”
It has been widely reported Symonds felt abandoned by cricketing authorities after a run-in with Indian spin bowler Harbhajan Singh during the New Year’s Test in Sydney in the summer of 2008.
And Symonds admitted he felt “caged-in” as his celebrity grew within the game.
“It takes it out of you, a little bit at a time,” he said.
“Then there’s the build-up from that, and then, boom.
“I sit back now and I look at it and I think at some point I was going to blow, I was gonna bust. Whether it was now, or whether it was in two months time.”
As for his last straw in London, where he broke an agreement not to drink outside the team environment, Symmonds said he got caught up watching the rugby league State of Origin opening game between NSW and Queensland.
“And for me, with Origin football, comes a few beers.”
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