Andrew Symonds, who played test and one-day cricket for Australia between 1998 and 2009, died in a car crash in North Queensland last week aged 46.
His Guardian obituary reminded me of something I had forgotten: it was once hoped that Symonds would play cricket for England.
For he was born in Birmingham and taken to Australia by his adoptive parents when he was three months old.
In 1995, at the age of 19, he came back to England to play for Gloucestershire and did enough in his first season to be voted young player of the year by both the Cricket Writers' Club and the Professional Cricketers' Association.
Qualified for England by birth, he was chosen to tour Pakistan that winter as part of the England A team. But he made it clear that his future lay with Australia and declined the selection.
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