Australia in India, 2008-09

Symonds' absence will take gloss off the tour - Kirsten

Cricinfo staff

September 5, 2008

	Doubt hangs over whether Andrew Symonds will travel to India for the Test series © AFP

Gary Kirsten, India's coach, has said Andrew Symonds' possible absence from the tour of India, which begins in October, could take the gloss off the series. Kirsten hoped India would be able to exploit the situation if Australia have to go for a relatively inexperienced player as Symonds' replacement.

Symonds, who was sent home from Darwin ahead of the ODI series against Bangladesh after he chose to go fishing instead of attending a team meeting, was pondering his future with Australia. Coach Tim Nielsen had said the team was planning for being without the allrounder for the India tour.

"We all know with the Australian set-up that they always replace those individuals with quality players, but in the heat of Test-match battle sometimes experience counts for a lot," Kirsten told the Melbourne-based Age.

"There is a lot of hype around him and the quality player that he is, and also I gather there is a lot of tension around from what happened in the last series.

"To not have him around ... does that alleviate it? Does it make it better? I don't know the answer. One thing we must always be aware of is that the game is bigger than the individual."

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