Sri Lanka will be looking for the elusive test match and series win when they tour India for a Three Test, five ODI and Two T20 match series from November to December 2009. The team arrive in India on November 8th for the 55-day tour.
Australia Cricket Players
Andrew Symonds
Andrew Symonds is a talented powerful right-handed batsman. He can also bowl off spin or medium pace, making him a good all-rounder. He is an outstanding fielder as well, able to take catches well and with powerful throws and excellent reflexes; some may consider him almost the 'perfect cricket package'. His nickname is Roy, a reference to the footballing comic strip "Roy of the Rovers".
Since making his debut for the Queensland state team in the 1994-1995 season, Symonds has scored over 10,000 runs in first-class cricket. He has scored almost fifty centuries at this level of the game.
He made his one-day international debut for Australia in 1998. He opted to represent Australia despite being eligible for both England (his country of birth) and West Indies (through his parents).
In March 2004, he made his long-awaited Test debut in Australia's tour of Sri Lanka after showing great form in ODI cricket in 2003. However, he encountered difficulty against Muttiah Muralitharan on the dusty, spinning Sri Lankan tracks, failing to pass 25 in any of his four innings, and was dropped after two Test matches. He was recalled in November 2005 following the injury to Shane Watson, as Australia's search for an all-rounder continued. After 5 Tests, with a batting average of 12.62 and a bowling average of 85.00, his position in the team was under a cloud until the 2005 Boxing Day Test. On the first day of the match, he was out caught behind for a golden duck. Then, with his batting average threatening to drop under 10 and bowling average pushing 100, Symonds took 3/50 in the South African first innings before blasting 72 off 54 balls in the second innings (including a new Australian record for the fastest Test fifty - 40 balls) and taking 2/6.
As an ODI player, he is known for scoring runs at an excellent strike rate of over 90, with a highest score of 156. He cemented his place in the team in Australia's opening match of the 2003 Cricket World Cup, where he scored 143* to guide Australia from 4/86 to 8/310. Symonds is sometimes branded as a one-day international 'specialist' as he has, to date, failed to bring a great first-class record into the Test arena.
In English county cricket he initially played for Gloucestershire before later appearing for Kent. Playing for Gloucestershire in 1995, Symonds scored 256, an innings that contained a first-class record of 16 sixes.
In July 2005 he signed for Lancashire for the rest of the season having finished duties as part of Australia's ODI squad.
At the 2006 Allan Border Medal count, Symonds would have won the One Day player of the year award, but ruled was ineligible due to a late night of drinking which led to him turning up still inebriated to a match against Bangladesh, after which he was suspended.
Andrew Symonds won Player of the Series in the 05/06 Australian ODI VB series.
Whilst batting in the second Test in the Australian 2006 tour of South Africa, Andrew Symonds was struck in the face of his helmet by a bouncer off Makhaya Ntini. Symonds required four stitches on the inside of his upper lip.
Symonds has the fifth highest score in the history of the Twenty20 Cup hitting a 43-ball 112 for Kent Spitfires against Middlesex Crusaders on July 2nd, 2004.
Full name : Andrew Symonds
Born : June 9, 1975, Birmingham, Warwickshire, England
The 2009 ICC World Twenty20 is a Twenty20 cricket tournament scheduled to take place in England in June of 2009. It will be the second World Twenty20 and will consist of 12 teams, contested by all Test-playing nations plus qualifiers (Ireland, Netherlands and Scotland)
The Champions Twenty20 League, formed with the official sanction of ICC will kick off in October 2008. Eight domestic teams from four nations will participate. Cricket Australia will partner the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and Cricket South Africa (CSA). The champion team in the Champions Twenty20 league will get US $5 million, which is the highest ever prize money for a cricket event.
