Aussie cricket team had a running ‘joke’ about Michael Clarke, Andrew Symonds

Reeling from the death of Andrew Symonds, Michael Clarke has opened up about the “amazing connection” with his former teammate.

Michael Clarke was back on air today, speaking about his relationship with Andrew Symonds after the Aussie cricket legend’s tragic death.

The pair became extremely close when Clarke first arrived in the national team before their friendship broke down towards the end of Symonds’ career and they fell out.

Clarke missed Monday’s episode of Sky Sports Radio’s Big Sports Breakfast — where he is a co-host alongside rugby league great Laurie Daley and Gerard Middleton — after news emerged Symonds had died in a car accident outside of Townsville on Saturday night, when his vehicle veered off the road and rolled over.

The former Australian captain was back hosting the radio program on Tuesday, where he opened up on his shock at the devastating news — which comes after the deaths of fellow cricket greats Rod Marsh and Shane Warne earlier this year

“Tough couple of days for Andrew Symonds’ family and friends and obviously extremely sad, so that was my reason for not being here yesterday,” Clarke said. “I just wanted to take a bit of time and reach out to a few people as well.

“Really tough. I don’t know what’s going on in cricket at the moment, it’s just devastating. Been a horrible few months.

“These are the times you grab your family, your friends and cherish everyday, I guess.

“Very tight with his kids as well. I think that was the one thing about Simmo, he was always going to be an amazing father.”

Clarke spoke about the bond he developed with Symonds as the duo formed Australian cricket’s ultimate odd couple. Symonds loved the outdoors and going fishing and hunting, while Clarke was the city slicker with peroxide blond hair.

The New South Welshman revealed they once hired a Winnebago to travel from Sydney to Brisbane, then further north to Esmeralda, with Clarke organising the first half of the trip before Symonds took charge of the back half.

Symonds was hugely popular in the Aussie team. Pic: Phil Hillyard.

“We were so opposite in so many ways. The laughing joke in our team was complete city boy, me, complete country boy, him, yet we built an amazing connection,” Clarke said.

“We did things I thought I’d never experience and wasn’t comfortable doing but with him he made me feel comfortable.

“Talk about out of your comfort zone. We were fishing for barra on these banks where there were crocs everywhere and again, no way would I ever do that on my own but with him he just made you feel so comfortable.”

Clarke has some “amazing memories” of his time with Symonds and said he was “probably my favourite batsman to bat with in the Australian team”.

“We just had a really good connection, some of the things that we both enjoyed about batting — you know that running between wickets, or even how competitive we were at fielding training to try and improve our fielding. It brought the best out of me,” Clarke said.

“Very fortunate to have spent so much time with him on and off the field, to have played with him.”

Clarke has now lost some of his closest mates in cricket in Symonds, Warne and Phil Hughes, saying he still “thinks about them everyday”.

“I think that’s the key to remember all those good times and celebrate those,” he added.

“It’s hard to believe. Of all things, an accident — a car accident as well — it’s just so hard to comprehend.

“When you go through some of those feelings, you’ve got to keep remembering the good times.”

Symonds took Clarke out of his comfort zone.

Clarke and Symonds’ relationship soured after the latter was sent home from a one-day series for skipping a team meeting to go fishing when Clarke was filling in for Ricky Ponting as captain.

After retiring, Symonds criticised Clarke for not approaching former teammates before airing dirty laundry in his autobiography and after casting doubt on the batter’s leadership style in 2015, the former Aussie skipper hit back by referencing his former friend turning up too drunk to play a one-day international in 2005.

Despite the ill will, Clarke said losing Symonds as a mate “killed” him. However, he refused to apologise for putting the team ahead of personal loyalties.

“Some former teammates will take his side, and feed his conviction that I let him down and put ambition ahead of mateship,” Clarke wrote in his book.

“I would say that he let me down too — that if he had understood mateship as a two-way street, he would have seen that I had to do what was right for the whole team.”