Jacques Kallis and Makhaya Ntini dominate the nominations in the inaugural Mutual and Federal South Africa Cricket Awards, to be hosted on April 22 by the South African cricket board. The awards will cover players at all levels of the game, including amateur cricket, as well as from the under-13 level onwards.Kallis has been nominated in five categories, and Ntini, in four – including the main one, the Mutual and Federal SA Cricketer of the Year, where Graeme Smith, Herschelle Gibbs, Shaun Pollock and Gary Kirsten are the other contenders. This award is separate from the Standard Bank Cricketer of the Year, where Kallis, Pollock and Ntini have been nominated.Kallis and Ntini have been nominated for the Castle Lager/MTN Test Cricketer of the Year award as well, with Smith being a contender as well.But the awards will not be limited only to players. A number of the 26 awards will recognise the efforts of administrators, groundsmen, scorers and umpires.

Brian Lara has expressed his concern about the flurry of injuries that have hit the West Indies team recently ahead of their tour of England later this month.”I must express how worried I am,” Lara told Associated Press, “about the spate of injuries to the young and very talented ones. Fidel Edwards continuously finds himself on the physio table, and now has been sidelined at least five times in his brief career.” Edwards, struck with a hamstrung injury, was excluded from the one-day squad that is due to depart for England on June 13.The risk of overworking his fast bowlers was another major concern for Lara. “Just look at them and you would wonder how they generate such pace with such small physiques. These guys bowl in the region of 90 miles [per hour] and upwards, and surely the constant pounding will accentuate injury.”However, Lara also cited the positives that his team had gained from the victory over Bangladesh and praised the efforts of Ramnaresh Sarwan, Omari Banks and Pedro Collins. And there was also a note about the scheduling of the one-dayers before the Tests, on the forthcoming England tour, which he felt would enable the players to get acclimatised to the conditions.West Indies will join England and New Zealand in the three-way NatWest Series which begins on June 24, and later take on England in a four-Test series which starts towards the end of July.

Greg Blewett, the former Australian batsman, is set to sign for Surrey this Friday in time for this season’s Twenty20 Cup. He will replace Saqlain Mushtaq, the Pakistani offspinner, who will miss the rest of the summer with a knee injury.Blewett, 32, scored centuries in each of his first two Tests against England in 1994-95, and has been sounded out as a replacement overseas player. With Azhar Mahmood also out through injury, Surrey are eager to shore up their squad ahead of the tournament, which they won in its inaugural season last year.”We’ve looked around for a spinner but there aren’t many around,” said a Surrey spokesman, “especially as the Asia Cup is about to start.” They also signed India’s Zaheer Khan as an amateur for two matches, although he was not 100% fit either.Blewett, who played the last of his 43 Tests in New Zealand in March 2000, has previously played for Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Middlesex and Kent.Saqlain, who has played 49 Tests and 169 one-dayers for Pakistan, only managed three first-class matches this season, the last of which was in mid-May. He has been at Surrey for the last seven summers, but may be coming towards the end of his time at The Oval after a disappointing time last season, taking 41 wickets at an average of just over 33.

Sri Lanka A 190 for 6 (Perera 43*) beat Kent 188 for 8 (Smith 70) by four wickets
ScorecardSri Lanka A made it seven wins out of seven with another emphatic victory, this time over Kent at Canterbury. They were made to sweat briefly, as Amjad Khan whipped out three wickets in a useful nine-over spell, but Kent’s total of 188 for 9 proved insufficient, and the Sri Lankans swept home by four wickets with more than five overs to spare.Rain reduced the match to a 43-over affair, but after winning the toss and batting, Kent made the perfect start, as Michael Carberry and Ed Smith rattled along to a 109-run opening partnership. But as soon as Carberry fell for an excellent 48, the wheels came off the innings. Alex Loudon was caught-and-bowled by Suraj Mohamed for 1, and Suraj followed up with the big wicket of Smith, for a finely-crafted 70.The innings unravelled with alarming speed after that. Only Niall O’Brien’s defiant unbeaten 27 from 25 balls prevented a complete meltdown, but Kent’s total of 188 for 8 was unlikely to be competitive.Sure enough, Sri Lanka came racing out of the blocks, with Gayan Wijekoon setting the pace and Ian Daniel chipping in with a cameo 21. Khan then caused a mid-innings stutter, but Bathiya Perera steered them to victory with an unbeaten 43.

On the eve of the Champions Trophy, Kenya’s internal squabbles continue to take their toll, with the recent hammering by India A in Nairobi the latest example that things are going badly wrong. The scale of the defeat by India A – Kenya were bowled out for 117 and 168 as India A amassed 517 for 4 – should have worried even the most optimistic supporter of the game in the country.Less than 18 months ago Kenya were in a World Cup semi-final. But rather than build on that success, the intervening period has seen them go backwards. Within days of the conclusion of that tournament, the players threatened to go on strike over pay ahead of a one-day series in Sharjah, and last month they boycotted training, again in a pay dispute. Reports indicate that some of the players have been forced to take pay cuts of up to 90% as the Kenyan board (KCA) struggles to raise funds.Maurice Odumbe’s five-year ban for accepting bribes from an Indian bookmaker hardly helped morale. The increasingly bitter row between the KCA and the two main provincial boards has also been divisive, and, perhaps most importantly, the side is ageing and there are precious few young replacements coming through.The current squad is certainly not short of experience, but is growing long in the tooth. Many of the players who have provided the backbone of Kenya’s success over the last decade are now well into their thirties, and while there are a few youngsters, with the exception of Collins Obuya none of them look as though they have what it takes to succeed at the highest level.When Odumbe was banned, the selectors drafted Brijal Patel, a 28-year-old, into the squad as his replacement. Patel is a veteran of 22 ODIs, in which he averages 18.53 with no fifties, and he has failed to make his mark despite repeated opportunities. The message his selection confirmed was that the cupboard is woefully bare, and his call-up was roundly condemned in Kenya. He marked his return with a duck against India A last week.One senior administrator told me that the main concern was the lack of any structure between age groups (the oldest of which is Under-19) and the senior team. The Under-19 side, a good indicator of young talent, failed to make last February’s World Cup, suffering an ignominious exit to Uganda in the qualifiers. But perhaps the most serious omission is the absence of a Kenya A side, meaning that players face a huge leap between club cricket, which is of variable quality, and the international game.The administrator explained that money earmarked for development had been squandered, and that the KCA had “for a decade lived off the quality of the side they largely inherited while doing little to build for the future”. Jimmy Rayani, the former chairman of the KCA, admitted in July that funds were limited and that money from the ICC intended for development was being used to pay players.Things are slowly improving. The Academy at Simba Union is finally fully functional, but making up for a decade or more of mismanagement will take some time to remedy. The ICC appears to have recognised the scale of the problem, and whereas Kenya were until recently seen as the obvious next Test-playing nation, those putting forward that plan have gone decidedly cool on the idea.In April, Ehsan Mani, the ICC’s president, warned that Kenya’s ambitions to be a full Test country would not happen unless internal squabbles were sorted and a credible national league put in place. In the intervening five months, no progress has been made, and it is hard to see how anyone could argue that they are ready to step up to the plate.That will come as a relief to the cricket-playing world, who are already faced with the conundrum of what to do with Zimbabwe, who are in virtual freefall, without snuffing out the game there altogether. Another lame-duck Test team is the last thing international cricket needs, and it wouldn’t help the game in Kenya either.Kenya’s day will come, and there are many people working tirelessly towards that goal. All they need is the KCA to start doing the same and the job would become so much easier.

Andrew Flintoff rounded off an eventful week by winning the One-Day Player of the Year prize at the inaugural ICC awards ceremony at Alexandra Palace in London on Tuesday night. Flintoff became a father for the first time early on Monday, and now he has scooped this major new award.Flintoff, 26, scored 551 runs at the impressive average of 78.71 in one-day internationals during the year-long period assessed by the panel of judges, and also claimed 12 wickets at an average of 20.50. Unsurprisingly, Flintoff was also part of the one-day team of the year, which was captained – like the Test select XI – by Australia’s Ricky Ponting.Commenting on the accolade, Flintoff sounded almost star-struck. “If somebody had said three years ago that I’d be up here with Ricky [Ponting], and Jacques [Kallis], I probably wouldn’t have believed them,” he said. “My career over the past 18 months has taken a massive turnaround. I’m in a bit of a purple patch at the moment – not only in my cricket, but in my life.”My job’s been made easier by the class players in the [England] side. We’re really just 11 mates who go out and play, and enjoy each other’s company, and enjoy each other’s successes.”Ehsan Mani, the ICC’s president, commented: “Andrew Flintoff has certainly had a tremendous year in 2003-04, and we congratulate him on winning this award.”India’s prolific batsman Rahul Dravid picked up both the Test Player of the Year and the Player of the Year awards. “It was a great honour, totally unexpected,” he said. “I was very surprised because a lot of people here have had a good year. I’m really happy, and honoured, to be selected.”There was also success for India in the Emerging Player of the Year category, where the top prize went to Irfan Pathan, the 19-year-old left-arm pace bowler. “I feel really good about this,” said Pathan. “I have the confidence to do well in international cricket, but this award will boost my confidence even more. It will motivate me a lot, but it’s a big motivation to play for India anyway. Every single match is a big challenge.”Malcolm Speed, the ICC’s chief executive, paid tribute: “We congratulate Irfan Pathan on winning the Emerging Player of the Year award. He is a highly gifted player, and along with the other nominees in this category, [has] a very bright future in cricket.”The first award of the night, Umpire of the Year, was won by Simon Taufel, the young Australian official. He received the most votes from cricket’s Test captains and match referees. And the final gong, the Spirit of Cricket Award, went to the New Zealand team.World one-day XI
1 Adam Gilchrist (wk), 2 Sachin Tendulkar, 3 Chris Gayle, 4 Ricky Ponting (capt), 5 Brian Lara, 6 Virender Sehwag, 7 Jacques Kallis, 8 Andrew Flintoff, 9 Shaun Pollock, 10 Chaminda Vaas, 11 Jason Gillespie.
World Test XI
1 Matthew Hayden, 2 Herschelle Gibbs, 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Rahul Dravid, 5 Brian Lara, 6 Jacques Kallis, 7 Adam Gilchrist (wk), 8 Chaminda Vaas, 9 Shane Warne, 10 Jason Gillespie, 11 Stephen Harmison.

The inaugural Videocon Cup in Amsterdam got off to a flyer on August 21 as two old enemies, India and Pakistan, clashed in a 10,000 sellout at Amstelveen, with Pakistan emerging victorious in an entertaining tussle.If only the rest of the tri-series tournament, in which Australia completed the guest-list of party-hosts Holland, had continued so well. Alas, an even older cricketing foe – rain – spoiled everyone’s fun, by loudly intruding on the party like an unwanted, rather badly behaved guest. Poor attendances also marked these matches – even for the final, the ground was half-empty.The rain had stomped away by the day of the closely fought final, in which Australia defeated Pakistan by 17 runs, but not before it had upset a few guests – not least the owners of the television rights, Indian broadcaster Sony Max, who triggered their right to reduce their $6million sponsorship guarantee if any matches were not completed. In the end, the three teams were in line to settle for around a mere $1.5million per board for their appearances. Poor Holland, meanwhile: they stood to profit only from gate receipts for organising the shindig.The 36mm of apparently unexpected rain which fell during the tournament washed out most of the preliminary games and led to a final many felt was unfair and not a little farcical, as only one match of the tri-series had been completed beforehand. And even that group game – the India/Pakistan opener – did not escape from a downpour, with the match being reduced to 33 overs-a-side.As it was, the rain on the opening day spared the organisers’ blushes. They had refused to ship any tickets abroad, leaving bemused spectators to queue while tickets were manually printed by a staff of two people.And once they had their ticket, fans had to queue again, this time for the privilege of being shoehorned through the only entrance. To prevent a riot breaking out among the increasingly impatient fans who faced missing the start of the match, police had to open the gates to allow them to sweep in en masse. But spirits were soon high, helped perhaps by the open smoking by some in the stands of a certain substance oft-associated with Amsterdam.Where another, more traditional, relaxing agent was concerned – beer – the organisers had failed to realise the Indian supporters’ penchant for the wet stuff. They could only watch helplessly as tents, and their profits, ran dry early on. Now the 6000 Indian fans who had travelled from England, Austria and Norway could not even drown their sorrows as Pakistan claimed the win.The thirsty fans, at least, had more luck on the food front, with salmon bagels and hot chicken focaccia made for them to order – this meant more queueing, of course, but the organisers were forgiven on this occasion. Any fans returning to The Oval and Lord’s may have difficulty readjusting to the prospect of impenetrable pizza and teeth-breaking tortellini.While the culinary efforts were overdone by the organisers – although nobody was overheard complaining – security was a little undercooked. The Dutch police were overawed by the India and Pakistan supporters’ post-match exuberance as they spilled onto the field to surround the players. No harm was done on this occasion, fortunately, but it is something the Amstelveen authorities must bear in mind in future – especially as both Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly have featured on recent terrorist hit-lists.

The no-result from the opener left India praying that Pakistan could defeat Australia by a huge margin in the remaining group match to stand a chance of featuring in the final, after their own match against Australia was washed out. But again the rains came.Any talk of extending the tournament or rescheduling matches was squarely dismissed by Australia, who further dampened the mood with their downbeat objections. They argued that playing three matches in four days would be too much for their players, and also drew attention to their obligations to play in the Champions Trophy in England – for which the Videocon was essentially a warm-up.So, Australia faced Pakistan in a low-scoring final on August 29, as per the original schedule, in what was the tournament’s only rainless match.If not entirely a success this time, there is no reason to strangle the VideoCon Cup in its infancy – or to move it out of Holland, as may happen. Many of the teething issues can be ironed out for 2005 – better security and more beer would be a good start.One obvious move would be, as the vast majority of fans are travelling from England, it would make more sense to shift the tournament to England next year. After all, as demonstrated, it is equally likely to rain in Holland. But that would be to overlook the fun of a trip abroad.At last, England-based fans have a short-haul, fairly inexpensive option to see a burst of international cricket overseas, as the Netherlands is but a budget flight away.Amsterdam itself, of course, is always a popular destination for many reasons… not just cricket-related. And it isn’t only the fans for whom the tournament provides a short break. Pakistan’s Inzamam-ul-Haq – perhaps speaking for all of the players – declared at the closing ceremony that he viewed the tournament as, essentially, a holiday. So party on.Jenny Thompson is editorial assistant of Wisden Cricinfo.

ScorecardAt St George’s Park in Port Elizabeth the confident attacking tactics of the Eagles, Standard Bank Cup log leaders, again paid off as the Warriors ended 63 short of the 278-run target. The Eagles have now virtually secured themselves a home semi-final spot.Winning the toss on a good batting pitch and electing to bat first the Eagles needed just three solid partnerships to power their way to 277 for 5. The opening pair of Morne van Wyk and Jonathan Beukus, for the fifth time this season, passed the 50-mark. This was followed by the hard hitting of Davey Jacobs and Benjamin Hector, who put on 137. Jacobs was destructive in his undefeated 101 hitting nine boundaries and two sixes. Hector finished on 75 as he tried to muscle his fourth six over the ropes. Loots Bosman then hit 30 off 16 balls as he and Jacobs put on 50 off 22 balls in 14 minutes for the Eagles to end on a match winning 277 off 45 overs.Mornantau Hayward, slightly expensive, proved that he remains a wicket taker as he pocketed three of the five wickets to fall while Tyron Henderson put in a creditable 1 for 36 in his nine overs.Throughout their innings the Warriors struggled to maintain the required run-rate. After losing Dumisa Makalima for 12, Mark Bruyns (33) and Tyron Henderson (41) made a valiant attempt but both succumbed just after establishing themselves. Laden Gamiet had a little flurry, scoring 43, but it was all in vain as wickets kept on falling at regular intervals.Where the Eagles batting had set up the win, the bowlers finished it off with excellent disciplined bowling, as they continued to build the pressure on the batsmen. Deon Kruis was the most successful, taking 3 for 36, as the Warriors crumbled to 215 all out.

The dark clouds that huddled over Kingsmead and ended the Boxing Day Test match against England provided some sort of silver lining at the end of a difficult year for South Africa in international cricket.At Durban they were 290 for 8, chasing an unlikely 378 to win, when the weather closed in with 15 overs remaining and England enjoying the new ball. There was a minor triumph in the steady stride of the 20-year-old AB de Villiers, buoyed by a defiant maiden half-century, but the South Africans were happy to escape to the dressing-room with a draw.That was a better result for Graeme Smith’s team than the seven-wicket hiding they endured in the first Test, and suddenly 2005 – and the New Year Test at Newlands -loomed significantly less ominously.It brought to an end a forgettable year which, let’s not forget, started with only Australia rated a better team than South Africa, albeit by a country mile.At the start of 2004 South Africa were already two up in a four-Test series against West Indies that they eventually won 3-0. The one-day series that followed threatened to be one-sided when SA won the first two games and the third one was washed out, but West Indies bounced back with a win of their own. And when the Windies piled up 304 in the series decider at the Wanderers, the first signs of cracks seemed to be appearing … only for Jacques Kallis to reel in the target with a masterful 139 in a thriller that South Africa won by four wickets with just two balls to spare. Kallis’s innings took him past a total of 1000 runs in eight international matches.Eight days later South Africa embarked for New Zealand, and all seemed well. But a 5-1 defeat in the one-day series proved otherwise, and they came perilously close to losing a Test series to New Zealand for the first time before rallying to draw it 1-1.

The only highlights for South Africa came from Kallis, who became the first player since Don Bradman to score hundreds in five consecutive Tests, and from Gary Kirsten, who crowned his long career with an emotionally charged 76, his last Test innings, to help square the series.Things went from bad to worse when South Africa went to Sri Lanka in July. A gritty draw in the first Test at Galle was followed by humiliation in Colombo, where Sri Lanka won by 313 runs. Mahela Jayawardene made 237 at Galle, and Kumar Sangakkara piled up 232 in Colombo.And then Sri Lanka cleaned up the one-day series 5-0: two weeks later in England Eric Simons’s tenure as coach ended after South Africa were escorted out of the ICC Champions Trophy by West Indies.Simons’s successor, the combative Ray Jennings, seemed happy with a 1-0 defeat in the Test series in India, especially after one of his protégés, Andrew Hall, scored 163 in the drawn first Test. But South Africans demand winners, and Jennings hadn’t proved himself to be one by the end of 2004. He didn’t start 2005 too badly, though …

Telford Vice is a South African sports-writer who works for the MWP Sport agency.

Andrew Symonds had thought long and hard. Now he knew what had to be done. At 27, he was burned out, broken-hearted and all busted up inside. After nearly a decade on the fringes of big-time cricket – a period in which he had cracked Australia’s one-day team, broken big-hitting records around the world, and shown sparks of his brilliance without ever quite delivering on the promise of what had widely been predicted would be a long and glorious career – the allrounder had made the biggest decision of his life.He would quit cricket and reinvent himself as a rugby league player.It was mid-2002. The World Cup was less than a year away, and Andrew Symonds was in a slump he just couldn’t get himself out of. After a string of cheap dismissals – each softer and weirder and more despairing than the last – he’d been unceremoniously dumped from the Australian team and, in the eyes of the selectors, was now probably the No. 4 allrounder in the land, behind Shane Watson, Ian Harvey, and Brad Hogg. Moreover, the game he was "born to play" had now driven him to "the brink of madness"."I’d come to the realisation I wasn’t good enough," Symonds recalls. "To my eyes, I’d peaked and even though I wasn’t fully satisfied by what I’d achieved in cricket, I figured it was time to try something new." This, he says vehemently, "wasn’t just a whim". Symonds had discussed the life-changing career-switch with his inner circle of friends and family and, to a man (and woman), they pledged support for whatever decision he made. But in the end, it was Symonds’ call and no one could make it for him.Truth be known, the thought of first-grade footy had been nagging for some time. Like many natural born sportsman Symonds had been forced to choose as a teenager which game he’d devote his energies and ambitions to. Trophies for both junior rugby league and union – not to mention pennants for state hockey and various athletics medals – attested to his all-round dynamism. But he went with the sport he was best at and so cricket’s gain was football and hockey’s loss.Like any close knit clan, the Symonds family had gone to extraordinary lengths to give their prodigal son every chance to achieve his dreams. Having adopted Andrew as a baby in Birmingham and emigrated to Australia from England with him as an 18 month old, they had settled in Charters Towers in central Queensland, where Andrew’s father, Ken, worked as a boarding house master.Then, when Andrew’s abundant skills as a swordsman, seamer and spinner started to bloom, Ken moved the whole family – 12-year-old Andrew and his younger siblings, Louise and Nick – back into the big smoke, lock, stock, and barrel – and set their sights on the stars."My old man had thrown balls at me before and after school five days a week," says Andrew. "And when we were living way out, he’d drive me into town for club cricket on weekends. But as I got older, he wanted me to have a better standard of cricket and the only place to get that was back in Brisbane.As a youngster, Symonds was "a bony kid…but fast … and pretty mischievous". When he stepped out of line – normally it was for his habitual thieving of Mum’s biscuits and cakes – Dad’s strap (and the old `Son, this is gonna hurt you more than it hurts me’ line) sorted him out.But on the cricket field, fuelled by the deeds of his heroes Viv Richards and Kim Hughes, young Andrew was his own master and that’s where the trouble began. The kid who would become one of the world’s most feared clubbers of a cricket ball might’ve spoken softly … but even knee-high to a grasshopper he carried a VERY big stick."I guess you could say I was always … er, a positive player," laughs Symonds. "Let’s just say I wasn’t the type of kid who’d block until after lunch to get 50. I was a "striker" of the ball rather than a "stroker", just as Gilly is a striker and someone like Mark Waugh is a stroker. Both naturals, just different.Symonds got a taste for tonking early in life. "It’s an amazing feeling – there’s this split second of achievement that just explodes inside you, where you’ve hit the ball and there’s no fear of being caught because the ball’s in the bleachers. That’s when the adrenaline kicks in and that’s where a smart player throttles back a bit. But me …"Some days he sent thrills through the crowd with his sky-rockets. Some days he went down blazing. But either way, the harder Symonds swung that axe, the deeper a hole he dug for himself. "Now, looking back, I can see I was sowing a lot of seeds that would come back to haunt me when I got into serious cricket. See, as a junior I was very good at getting to 50 but then I’d have to retire. So I made sure I had a good time of it – normally by taking a liking to one bowler and trying to blast him out of the park one too many times … or until they hauled me off."Back then, Symonds says he was "aggressive to the point of danger … even self destruction". Ten years later, if you were to have asked cricket fans what they thought of Andrew Symonds’ approach to the game, they’d have probably said the exact same thing. And the man himself would agree wholeheartedly. "I’ve spent the bulk of my career trying to entertain rather than maintain, and too many times it’s cost me my spot in the side. I found myself doing stupid things and throwing myself on a sword when I really didn’t have to."Mostly, I’ve been trying too hard. Now I know that doesn’t work for me. I tighten right up and end up getting out in an uncanny way. But there have been other times where I just haven’t known how to go about it. That’s not through lack of trying or ability it’s just that I didn’t have the mindset I have now where I walk out there with a plan."See, back then I didn’t think a great deal about what I was trying to achieve or what the team needed. I’d just look at the scoreboard, see we needed 270-odd and I’d try and get `em as quick as I could. What I should’ve been doing was playing it smart, working out what bowlers were going to be easiest to score off at which stage of the innings … but that’s something I’ve only been realising the last couple of years."As Symonds attests, it’s been a different man wearing the trademark zinced-up lips these past couple of summers. The change can be dated back to those dark days of 2002 when his days as a cricketer looked done and dusted. "Maybe I was depressed. Maybe I was cracking up. All I knew was that I wasn’t good enough to cut it at the top level. And that it was now or never. So I made the call …"Symonds rang Wayne Bennett, mastermind coach and guru behind the Brisbane Broncos, and a man widely renowned as one of the deepest thinkers in sport."I just poured it all out to him," Symonds says. "I told him how I was feeling, that I’d lost my drive and my direction and that my confidence had taken a battering and that more and more I wasn’t being fulfilled by cricket anymore and that now I was thinking of trying something else – footy."Wayne didn’t bat an eyelid. He said, ‘Are you sure? It’s a serious step’. I told him I was deadly serious. ‘Then I’ll help and support you if I can,’ he said. Obviously his biggest issues were my ball skills and my ability to withstand tackling but he was definitely interested. He could see the passion was there."Symonds says that passion stemmed largely from his fervent desire to play State of Origin football. "On game night I’d be so pumped up I’d almost feel I was out there," he admits. "I was getting way too far ahead of myself but that’s what was driving me, what I wanted more than anything: to achieve that pinnacle of Queensland sport and run out onto Lang Park wearing that maroon jumper."But as powerful a motivating force as his passion for league was his disillusionment with cricket. "It wasn’t as though I was rolling out of bed thinking `Aw shit, not cricket again’. I think it was more that I was so disappointed in myself. I felt I was shaming the people I represented – my parents, my team-mates, everyone. Deep down I knew I wasn’t doing what was required of me. I wasn’t contributing as much or as often as I could and I wasn’t repaying the faith so many people had shown in me over the years."The lowest of the low points was when I was about to be axed from the Queensland side," admits Symonds. "By now fear had destroyed my confidence and totally messed up my state of mind. I really thought I was GONE. As it turned out I went out onto the Gabba and got an 80-odd or a ton that day and then batted really well for the rest of the season. But I think it was that fear of losing something so dear to me, something I’d dreamed of since I was a kid and seeing that slipping away – that turned it all around for me."That and Queensland Bulls team-mate Matt Hayden. "Matty gave me the belief and the strength to believe that success was simple. The way he explained it, cricket was all about training hard and then, away from the game, relaxing totally … that and hitting thousands and thousands of balls day in, day out."Of course, being with Hayden when their fishing boat was capsized by a freak wave and then swimming through shark-infested waters while oozing tuna oil and bait-stink, fighting a wicked tide and dragging their unfit, half-dead mate along arm-in-arm for about 900 agonising metres does tend to strengthen the bonds of friendship too. But that’s another story.Fact is, the REAL making of Andrew Symonds wasn’t in the mind. It was in the middle. The middle of the Wanderers Stadium in South Africa on February 11, 2003 to be exact – the most fear-inducing arena in the cricket world and, on that day, the biggest stage in the game. It was there the 27-year-old Symonds found himself walking to the wicket to the catcalls of 25,000 fans who knew his career, his reputation and the fate of his entire team was about to be decided. The Hour had arrived.That Symonds was even there that day is, as he calls it, "pure fluke". But thanks to "a bit of help from the captain and the coach" the wretchedly out-of-form all-rounder whose summer had rated a 3/10 from Inside Edge the month previous had defied all the odds and somehow cracked the squad for the 2003 World Cup."I don’t think it’d be understating things to say that (Buchanan and Ponting) saved my career," says Symonds, still shaking his head. "All I know is that I was standing out in the middle of the MCG training with Australia A when Allan Border read my name and Ian Harvey’s as part of the squad. I was gobsmacked. I had blokes slapping me on the back and shaking my hand but I was totally numb. I felt like I had a spot I didn’t deserve. I felt bad, sick, most of all, guilty. I couldn’t stop thinking: How am I going to the World Cup? I swallowed my pride at the time but the truth was I felt worse than the blokes who’d missed out."But it was done. And so the squad convened, trained "like dogs", jetted out for South Africa. Then, on match eve, the Shane Warne drug scandal broke and everything went haywire. Suddenly, Symonds, the man who shouldn’t even be at the tournament was in the starting side. Moreover, he was walking out with his team in crisis after a Pakistan blitzkrieg had shattered the star-studded Australian top-order to the tune of 4-86."It’s all a bit of a blur to be honest," recalls Symonds. "I do remember that I’d never seen a more nervous Australian dressing room. Normally there’s a few jokes, a bit of talk, but that day blokes were toey as all hell and it was eerie quiet. And then one minute I was sitting there with t-shirt and thongs on, and the next I was diving around looking for my gloves and thigh pad because Wasim Akram was going through us."I was nervous early, no doubt. I played and missed, sparred at a few. It was scratchy stuff. Then I got a four away and settled a bit. Punter kept coming down and whether I’d air-swung or hit a boundary he’d say `Next ball! Next ball!’ And so I found myself watching that ball closer than I ever had before in my life – and since! I swear I could see the stitches as it came toward me I was so zoned in and lined up."When I hit 50 my confidence really grew. My feet were moving and the ball was going into the gaps and hitting the fence hard. Then, when I was about 85, the scoreboard conked out. I hit a couple more fours and thought `Geez, I must be close here’ and then I got one between the two point fielders and that’s when I heard Gilly scream. Even from the middle I heard it, clear as day. I looked up and the boys were going beserk."From there, it was like a dream. I felt free as a bird and I just kept trying to hit sixes. Mostly they were fours but there was one shot I’ll always relish – hitting the great Wasim Akram over mid-on for six. That was when I really knew I was having a good day." ("A good day" – it’s the same way Symonds described his world record six-a-thon for Gloucestershire v Glamorgan at Abergavenny in 1995 where he scythed 16 sixes for 254 and then followed it by hitting another ton in the second dig which included another four sixes.)As he left the field of Wanderers with 143 from 125 balls, his first one-day century notched, one of the great World Cup innings etched forever in the stone of the press the next day, his team sitting supreme at 8-310, Andrew Symonds was reborn."The relief and the excitement on the boys’ faces … well, that image will stay with me forever. It wasn’t just elation we were all feeling it was the feeling that comes with being in a hopeless situation and getting ourselves out of it to the point where we shouldn’t lose the game. (They won by 82 runs and went on to win the World Cup)."But for me, the best feeling was the feeling of payback for Mum and Dad and all the hours in the nets and at games and carnivals and all the sweat they invested in me. I like to think that after all the promise, all the late development and so on, that century was their payback."Since that historic day, everything’s come up roses. Last year Symonds even achieved another of his life goals when he donned the baggy green as part of the touring Australian XI that took the series v Sri Lanka 3-0. And although his Test stats aren’t earth-shattering – 53 runs at 13.25 and one wicket at 85 – he’s working on fixing that.Older, wiser, wilier than the wild pigs he hunts, Symonds knows what he has to do. He’s aiming to score big hundreds this summer – 150-pluses, and he’s also toiling diligently away with ex-Test tweakers Colin Miller and Greg Matthews and Ashley Mallett on the spin bowling in which Ponting says there’s so much promise.Hell, he’s even sworn an oath to cut down on the partying that has got him into strife in the past and phase out his habit of showing up for contract negotiations with Cricket Australia in thongs, cowboy hat and carrying his crab pots. Even the smoking 2 pound 9 ounce bat he wields is a smarter sword these days. "No more too much, too soon," he smiles. "These days I’m playing it cool for the first 20 balls and waiting for the runs to flow. And, when I feel bogged down and I get that urge to smash a four or six, I’m gonna stay cool, have faith in the bloke at the other end and slowly build momentum … then I’ll explode!"As for that "innings of a lifetime" at the World Cup 2003, Symonds has never seen it. "Maybe I’ll roll the tape before I finish playing but right now I reckon maybe I’ll wait until after I retire. Then again, perhaps in a dark moment I’ll need to take a look …"