Brian Lara flew 10,000 km to attend the funeral of his mate Andrew Symonds

Brian Lara flew 10,000 km to attend the funeral of his mate Andrew Symonds

Brian Lara and Andrew Symonds

The legendary West Indies cricketer Brian Lara flew to Townsville to attend Friday’s funeral for the Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds, who dies in a car accident on May 14. His car had left the road and rolled at Hervey Range. It was 50 km west of Townsville in far north where he died at the scene. He was just 46 at that time.

“I felt I was building beyond cricket with Andrew,” Lara had said. He also said that the death of Symonds and the iconic Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne’s death deeply ‘rocked’ him.

Lara felt that Andrew Symonds was his own man and that he lived a life different to that of his contemporaries. ‘Roy’, as they used to call Symonds had a dry sense of humour that kept Lara entertained.

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“Sometimes you lose relationships with players when you retire. But ours grew. And it was not because he forced it or I forced it. It just happened naturally. We were awesome together.”

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Michael Clarke attended Andrew Symonds’ funeral

Andrew Symonds
Andrew Symonds and Michael Clarke

Michael Clarke, the former Australia captain put his feud behind his old mate and attended Andrew Symonds’ funeral. He was very close to Symonds when he joined the Australian team but their relationship broke down. Clarke said that he was ‘devastated’ in an Instagram post following Symonds’ death.

In 2008, when Symonds was sent home from a Test match in Darwin when he chose fishing over a mandatory team meeting. Symonds felt that Clarke-who was the Test captain at that time- had betrayed him. After Shane Warne’s funeral, both Lara and Symonds were there together at the Crown in Melbourne.

Both Clarke and Lara joined Symonds’ former Australian teammates, Ricky Ponting, Mark Waugh, Shane Watson, Mitchell Johnson and Adam Gilchrist at Riverway Stadium on the outskirts of Townsville. Other cricket greats who attended the funeral were Glenn McGrath and Ian Healy.

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