Australia axe falls on Symonds
Friday, 12 Sep 2008 09:22
Andrew Symonds left out of Australia's 15-man squad for upcoming India tour after latest breach of team discipline
Andrew Symonds has been left out of Australia's 15-man squad for the upcoming tour of India after his latest breach of team discipline.
The Queensland all-rounder is replaced in the squad by team-mate Shane Watson.
Symonds missed the recent one-day series with Bangladesh after he skipped a team meeting to go fishing.
"Andrew Symonds was stood down for disciplinary reasons... and is now going through a process managed by Cricket Australia designed to give him time to assess whether he is fully committed to all of the things needed for a cricketer to be a member of the world's number one team," Australia's chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch said in a statement.
"In the meantime, our advice was that he was not available to be considered for selection this time."
Australia have also called up four novice bowlers to the squad; spinners Bryce McGain and Jason Kreja and seamers Peter Siddle and Doug Bollinger.
Captain Ricky Ponting and opener Matthew Hayden have both been cleared to play after recovering from injuries.
Australia squad to play IndiaMatthew Hayden, Phil Jaques, Ricky Ponting (captain), Michael Hussey, Michael Clarke, Simon Katich, Shane Watson, Brad Haddin (WK), Brett Lee, Jason Krejza, Mitchell Johnson, Peter Siddle, Bryce McGain, Stuart Clark, Doug Bollinger.