Do you like Andrew Symonds?

[pasag]

I did read in his book that he was the only person who failed his final exams in his year at that school, something like that. So perhaps it's not really playing it down...

From my experience, exams in Aus don't test how smart you are but how much you study.

 

[four_or_six]

From my experience, exams in Aus don't test how smart you are but how much you study.

Fair enough. It'd be interesting to know who did well in the current Australian team then. Maybe the people you'd expect but I wonder if there's any closet geeks.

 

[Laurrz]

From my experience, exams in Aus don't test how smart you are but how much you study.

AWTA completely... going through year 10 everything was easy.. from 11 it really did strike me that i did have to do a significant amount of work..

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

Depends what you mean by "like", I guess.

I voted no because he's far from one of my favourite cricketers. I don't hate him on a personal level or anything, I just don't particularly like watching him play in comparison to other cricketers, and I don't particularly like him as an individual either. He's probably my least favourite player in the current Australian setup. I find his batting style ugly, though I do enjoy watching him field, and I just don't particularly get any joy out of his success. I do think he's a very good cricketer though, one of the best ODI batsmen going.

Personality wise I think he's a bit of a moron, but honestly I think most cricketers are, to some degree or another, especially during their playing peak. The social reality of being a professional sportsman doesn't often translate into admirable personality traits, IMO. There are of course exceptions.

 

[PhoenixFire]

Depends what you mean by "like", I guess.

I voted no because he's far from one of my favourite cricketers. I don't hate him on a personal level or anything, I just don't particularly like watching him play in comparison to other cricketers, and I don't particularly like him as an individual either. He's probably my least favourite player in the current Australian setup. I find his batting style ugly, though I do enjoy watching him field, and I just don't particularly get any joy out of his success. I do think he's a very good cricketer though, one of the best ODI batsmen going.

Personality wise I think he's a bit of a moron, but honestly I think most cricketers are, to some degree or another, especially during their playing peak. The social reality of being a professional sportsman doesn't often translate into admirable personality traits, IMO. There are of course exceptions.

Apart from the bit about disliking him on a personal level, I couldn't agree more.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

I think it's a bit unfair to be mean to Richard... I don't think he meant anything bad by it. It's just interesting.

I hear on the grapevine that Andrew Symonds has registered on the Forum with the intention of starting a "How much do you dislike Richard?" poll.

 

[kwigibo]

Interesting if that's the case. After looking on wiki (as one does) I see he actually went to a public (fee-paying) school where his dad taught, so he's probably from what us Poms would call a "middle-class" background rather than the staunchly blue-collar one that I'd assumed.

All Saints is what we'd call a private school. It's probably around the median in terms of academic reputation of private schools in the area, and probably much better than the public schools. Having attended a private school of similar quality one suburb over, I can tell you that the 'bogan' type is not a rarity in such schools.

On topic, I like Symonds as a player. I don't have much of an opinion beyond that except that he's from my area, so I enjoy it more when he does well. However, his recent comments about going to Pakistan I don't really like. Whether the danger is real or not, the way he came out and said what he said I think is counter-productive.

 

[Jono]

Why do the English call fee paying schools 'public' schools? I never understood that.

And yes, there are many bogans in private schools, so Symonds' schooling background isn't a surprise, or an expected education IMO. Its fairly irrelevant.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Why do the English call fee paying schools 'public' schools? I never understood that.

And yes, there are many bogans in private schools, so Symonds' schooling background isn't a surprise, or an expected education IMO. Its fairly irrelevant.

It's a complete misnomer, actually. It was originally because independent schools were governed by act of parliament called The Public Schools Act, which basically meant they weren't under the direct auspices of the Church or government. Now tho it's just passed into common usage as a synonym for fee-paying schools, hence my clarification in parenthesis for non-UK readers.

 

[Richard]

Besides, is there a point to this thread, other than to unleash a veiled personal attack on Andrew Symonds (which we really shouldn't)?

The point was that in another thread, someone said Symonds was very popular outside Australia as well as inside, and I said that I thought that was unlikely, but it would be interesting to see a poll. Which Richard was kind enough to do.

...the fact that Richard (who does not like Symonds) put up this poll made me suspicious from the outset. It would almost be like me setting up a poll about Harbhajan and waiting for the votes to roll in.

I think it's a bit unfair to be mean to Richard... I don't think he meant anything bad by it. It's just interesting.

Fair enough - I don't think Richard is a malicious character, FWIW.

I just think that it's rather suspicious that he brought up the personal merits (or demerits) of Andrew Symonds, when Symonds is not even playing any cricket at the moment.

I'd not find myself doing the same thing to players that I have issues with, but again, that's just me.

As f_o_s said - the only reason I started this poll was because of Matt of '79's off-the-cuff and slightly debated\misinterpreted (what you will) comment about Symonds' popularity. It struck me as interesting, so I decided to place a poll on it.

FTR, I'd say I dislike Symonds less than many on here do - both he and Harbhajan went down a fair bit in my estimation following SCGgate, and he'd not been unblemished there before (and nor had Harby). But apart from the fact I detest it when people are as lucky as he has been for the last 18 months (which is really completely independent of whether I like or dislike him) there's really little on his case that I have thought on. I certainly wasn't trying to emphasise "look, most non-Aussies hate Symonds" at all. I was, in fact, testing to see if such a thing was indeed the case, as I'd presumed it was but had recently become less than sure.

Plus Rich seems to feel that Aussie fans are unique in being more forgiving of the flaws of Aussie players than players from other teams, as if most fans from every country don't do the same thing for their team.

Eh? How so? Hometown bias irritates the heck out of me regardless of which team it takes. I do think, in my time on CW, more Aussies have tended to hometown bias than those from other places, but that's just an impression - I've made no form of scientific study on the matter. It's perhaps highly influential that two of the most obvious "biased" posters (sideshowtim and KaZoH0lic) are Australian. They're certainly not the only ones (Beevers is of course as bad with the Durham stuff, as well as the anti-pretty-much-every-non-England-team stuff, especially NZ and Pakistan) but they do tend to catch the attention.

BTW at the irony of this:

Take your hate elsewhere people.