Andrew Symonds asked Cricket Australia for a pay cut so he could spend more time fishing

If ever there was a story that summed up Andrew Symonds, asking for a pay cut so he could fish more probably does it best.

In the aftermath of his shock death, former fast bowler Damien Fleming described Andrew Symonds as the “Crocodile Dundee” of the Australian cricket team.

With a love of fishing and hunting, the all-rounder — who died aged 46 in a tragic car accident outside Townsville on Saturday night — was more at home in a tinnie than at the batting crease.

Sometimes Symonds’ extra-curricular activities got him into bother. Before an ODI series against Bangladesh in 2008, he was sent home because he missed a team meeting to go fishing — although Symonds was adamant it was the result of miscommunication after a training session was moved to a different time.

“I love with the time he missed a team meeting in Darwin to go fishing and he was eyeball deep in trouble. They’d had enough of him,” Courier Mail journalist Robert Craddock told Nova’s Fitzy and Wippa on Monday.

“Matthew Hayden was furious until he sent him a photo with a barramundi that he’d caught with the tagline, ‘Hey mate, look what you’ve missed by going to that meeting’.”

Such was Symonds’ desire to embrace his passions away from cricket, Craddock says he once offered to take a pay cut if it meant more fishing, less corporate appearances for Cricket Australia.

“As someone said to me yesterday, he’d have been perfect in the 1970s or 80s, you know, when he could really kick it around off the field,” Craddock told Fitzy and Wippa.

“But he felt that spirit was lost in the game.

“And it was so important to him because he was never materialistic. So long as he had a tinnie, a fishing rod, a crab pot and a cold beer, that was all he wanted.

“So he was the only cricketer I’ve ever known to ask for a pay cut from Cricket Australia. He said, ‘If you cut my wages by 20 per cent, I just want to do 20 per cent less gigs for corporate Australia’.

“He said, ‘I just want to disappear up north’. He said, ‘I don’t care about the money’ — which they (CA) refused to do. They said, ‘No, you’ve got to do it’.

“He was a superstar. All the corporates wanted him, but he just wanted that quiet life, a man apart and a throwback to a different era.”

Symonds embraced life in north Queensland, enjoying the extra freedom he had after retiring from professional cricket.

“He was over the game at the time,” wife Laura said during a 2016 interview with the Courier Mail. “Not his teammates, but the politics and the negativity. He needed to get back up here (to Townsville). He has everything he needs to be happy up here. It’s his paradise.”

Speaking to the Nine Network on Sunday, former Australian captain Allan Border said the big-hitting all-rounder “loved” his life away from the spotlight.

“People liked his very laid-back style. He lived in Townsville. When I spoke to him, I think he still had a hundred head of cattle to muster,” he said.

“Simmo away from the cameras and away from the spotlight, loved, I think, a bit of solitude and that is why he loved his fishing. Loved his own time.”

Symonds’ sister left a heartbreaking note at the scene of his crash on Sunday.

“Gone far too soon!” the note read. “Rest in peace Andrew.

“I wish we had one more day, one more phone call.

“My heart is broken. I will always love you my brother.”

Former teammates also wrote of their grief on social media. Michael Clarke said he was “devastated”, Adam Gilchrist said “this really hurts” while Ricky Ponting remembered Symonds as a fiercely loyal mate.

If Roy shook your hand you had his word, that’s the sort of bloke he was and that's why I always wanted him on my team. An extraordinary player and even better human being. Can’t believe he’s gone. Thoughts are with his family at this time. pic.twitter.com/7r7FiK1CzK

— Ricky Ponting AO (@RickyPonting) May 15, 2022

Originally published as Andrew Symonds asked Cricket Australia for a pay cut so he could spend more time fishing