New Delhi: Two Australian cricketing legends Andrew Symonds and Michael Clarke developed a great bond of friendship when they started playing for the Australian cricket team together. When Clarke became the captain of Australia, he led his team to several memorable wins. It was the time when Andrew Symonds had reached the endpoint of his career and somehow his equation with Clark hit the rocks. This happened after the then interim captain Clarke dropped Symonds for skipping a team meeting.
The bickering between the duo was so intense that in the year 2015 Symonds had criticized Clarke's leadership style. Reacting to this, Clarke had alleged that Symonds got drunk before playing the one-day series in 2008.
"Andrew Symonds went on TV to criticise my leadership. I'm sorry, but he is not a person to judge anyone on leadership," Clarke wrote in his 2015 Ashes Diary. "This is a guy who turned up drunk to play for his country. It's pretty rich for him to be throwing rocks."
Now, speaking on The Brett Lee Podcast, Symonds said that his relationship with Clarke went sour after he became the costliest overseas player in the Indian Premier League 2008, the inaugural edition of the cash-rich T20 league.
"We became close. When he (Clarke) came into the side I used to bat with him a lot. So, when he came into the side I really looked after him. That built a bond," Symonds told Lee.
"Matthew Hayden said to me — when the IPL started, I got a pretty penny to go and play in the IPL — he identified it as there was a bit of jealousy that potentially came into the relationship (with Clarke) there.
"I guess Money does funny things. It's a good thing but it can be a poison and I reckon it may have poisoned our relationship. I've got enough respect for him to probably not go into detail about what was said.
"My friendship with him is no longer and I'm comfortable with that, but I'm not gonna sit here and start slinging mud."