September 05, 2008	Friday	Ramazan 04, 1429

MELBOURNE, Sept 4: Breaking his silence after being served a punishment for breaching team discipline, Andrew Symonds on Thursday said he needs time to reflect on his future.

“I have had some time to reflect on the events that took place in Darwin,” Symonds said in his website. “I have been asked to think about what is important to me and I will take this time to do that. I would ask that during this time people respect my privacy and that of my friends and family.”

”I would like to thank for the many messages of support that I have received over the past day or so. I appreciate your best wishes,” he said.

Symonds was sent back home after he missed a team meeting before the first One-dayer against Bangladesh in Darwin.

Meanwhile, former captain and coach Greg Chappell has advised Symonds to learn to cope with the constant media glare and handle off-field stress.

”There are a lot of stresses away from the field. The constant focus of attention on everything that you do, anything that goes wrong will be highlighted,” Chappel was quoted as saying in ‘The Age’ .

”Learning to deal with all of that and understanding how it fits into a successful career and a successful team is a very important part of the mentoring role,” he added.

Symonds, who was sent home after he decided to go fishing instead of attending a team meeting, has been going through emotional stress and is even reportedly thinking to quit international cricket.

But Chappel is hoping that Symonds will make a comeback and advised him to take his time and give it a deep thought. “He needs to have time away and work out what’s important for him.

“Hopefully he decides playing for Australia is very important because he is a terrific cricketer and we all want to see him playing for Australia as long as possible,” he said.

Meanwhile, Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland said they completely supported Symonds and hoped the 33-year-old would be in the team as soon as possible as they needed players who are up and going.

”He has our absolute support and we’ve already gone to great lengths to ensure appropriate processes are in place for him,” he said.

”There’s some discipline issues related to it, but ultimately it’s a welfare issue. We all want Symonds up and going, playing cricket for Australia,” he added.—Agencies