Symonds has again got embroiled in a controversy. This incident if it is proven would further sully his reputation as it involves financial impropriety. It has been learnt that Symonds used his autographed bat to get a seven-figure loan sanctioned before investing the money in a failed company.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald Symonds used an autographed bat to avail a seven-figure loan from the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. Symonds, further invested the loan obtained, in a financial company, Storm Financial Services, which went bankrupt. It has been supplemented by the Australian Financial Review that an advisor from the financial company Storm had offered the cricket bat in 2007 with an objective to waive the cost of mortgage insurance for Symonds. It has been learnt that on account of this impetuosity Symonds has lost about US $ one million after the company collapsed in January.
Allegations have been flying thick and fast that on account of the autographed bat Symonds was given the preferential treatment, but the officials associated with the company have refuted this allegation.
It would be probably for the first time that a cricketer from Australia has been associated with a financial scandal though it has not been Symonds' undoing in the first instance. Cricketers on account of the media association that they generate are garnering quite a lot of attention from the investment firms of all the kinds. Earlier the cricketing world was hit by the Muldroff scandal, which still is having reverberations in the ECB and the Caribbean Cricket Board.
For Symonds, however, his path back into the Australian team becomes more difficult. As the Chairman of the selectors of the Australian Cricket Board had informed, Symonds is already under the scanner for his conduct and behaviour. This incident would sharpen the claws of his critics and for Symonds it indeed would be an acid test to regain the lost glory. Had he been allowed to play in the
Indian Premier League, may be, it could have provided him with a platform to announce to the world of cricket that he is ready to reclaim his spot. But he did not get the necessary permission from the ACB. It would, it seems, take a long time before he can shrug the monkey off his back and become the old Symmo, as the world knew him.
