2020 NFL TankBowl: Mid-season assessment
While most focus is on the NFL playoff contenders and pretenders, I prefer to celebrate sustained failure and the diametrically opposed goals of the front office (lose more equals higher picks) and the players (lose more equals no job for next year).
Talk about saving some hides.
I remember the last ODI Australia played prior to the WC, Symonds had come in around the middle overs with plenty of time to bat. Instead, he charged down the pitch off about his 5th or 6th ball and holed out to mid-on for about 4. No way he’s being selected for the WC now, right?
Well you’ve gotta hand it to Ponting for sticking his neck out and demanding that Symonds be picked for that game, otherwise Symonds would have been the first guy selected in a “never-fulfilled-his-talent XI.” In retrospect it’s amazing how many things had to fall Symonds’ way for him to get a look-in; I think I remember Darren Lehmann was suspended for the 1st game in that WC for racial vilification too, so Symonds only played out of desperation.
But credit to Symonds as well; after umpteen chances before, he didn’t give the selectors even a hint that he should he dropped after that. And his inclusion really did bring about a new standard in Australian fielding in ODI; I seldom recall him ever dropping a catch particularly in the outfield, and his arm was peerless. Pity he played 10 years too early before the T20 circus kicked off, he’d have been the prototype for all T20 players.
The Roar’s Cricket World Cup countdown: Andrew Symonds' match, World Cup and career-saving innings