'Extremely sad': Michael Clarke's devastating Andrew Symonds reveal

Former Australia captain Michael Clarke has put his differences with Andrew Symonds aside in a beautiful nod to the late cricketer and his former friend.

Symonds' death in North Queensland over the weekend rocked the sporting world, with investigations ongoing into what caused his car to leave the road and roll near his home in Hervey Range, about 50km from Townsville.

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Clarke and the late cricket icon were once extremely close during their playing days, but had a high-profile falling out towards the back end of Symonds' playing career.

The former Aussie skipper wrote that he was "devastated" on social media after hearing news of Symonds' tragic death, and took time away from his regular co-hosting duties on The Big Sports Breakfast on Monday, in the wake of the incident.

However, Clarke returned to the airways on Tuesday, where he shared a beautiful tribute to his former friend and some wonderful stories of their time together.

“A tough couple of days for Andrew Symonds’ family and friends,” Clarke said.

“Obviously extremely sad. Really tough. [I] just don’t know what is going on with cricket at the moment. Just devastating. It has been a horrible few months. These are the times you grab your family, friends and cherish every day.”

Clarke revealed that his close former bond with Symonds was a running joke in the Australian cricket team, with city slicker Clarke and outback boy Symonds seemingly worlds apart.

“The laughing joke in our team was complete city boy me, complete country boy him and yet we built an amazing connection,” he said.

“We did things I never thought I would experience and wasn’t comfortable doing but with him, [he] made me comfortable.”

Clarke said there was no better story to illustrate that point than his trip with Symonds from Sydney to far north Queensland, which culminated in a fishing expedition in crocodile-infested waters.

“I remember we did a Winnebago trip from Sydney to drive to Brisbane and flew up north to Esmeralda,” he said.

“We had two weeks. My job as a city boy was to organise the city trip, the start in Sydney and where we were going to stop along the way to Brissy and then he organised the back half from Brisbane up to Esmeralda.

“Talk about out of your comfort zone, we were fishing for Barra on these banks where there were crocs everywhere and again, no way would I ever do that on my own but with him he just made you feel so comfortable. Some amazing memories.”

Despite their falling out later in life, Clarke revealed that Symonds was “probably the most athletic cricketer” he played with and one of his favourite batting partners.

“We just had a really good connection,” Clarke added.

“Some of the things we both enjoyed about batting [were] running between the wickets or even how competitive we were at fielding at training to try and improve our fielding, brought the best out of me.

“Very fortunate to have spent so much time with him on and off the field, to have played with him, probably the most athletic cricketer I played with. Absolute freak of an athlete — speed, power, watching him dive and take a catch, a great fielder as well.”

Michael Clarke and Andrew Symonds in big fallout

Just last month Symonds spoke about the rift between himself and Clarke and suggested it may have centred on the late cricketer's lucrative IPL deal.

“Matthew Hayden said to me - when the IPL started, I got a pretty penny to go and play in the IPL - he identified it as there was a bit of jealousy that potentially came into the relationship (with Clarke) there," Symonds said on the Brett Lee podcast.

“Money does funny things. It’s a good thing but it can be a poison and I reckon it may have poisoned our relationship.

“I’ve got enough respect for him to probably not go into detail about what was said.

”My friendship with him is no longer and I’m comfortable with that, but I’m not gonna sit here and start slinging mud.”

Speaking on an episode of 'Cricket Legends' in 2018, Symonds also admitted he threw a drink on Clarke during a tour of the West Indies.

“I threw a drink on him and what he said to me put me into a rage,” Symonds said at the time.

“What he said to me was nowhere near accurate and that immediate point is where he lost me and I lost him.

“Our friendship was destroyed in that moment.

“He’d said to me, not in these words, but he’d suggested I was a selfish player and a selfish person. The one thing I don’t consider myself to be is that and that really annoyed me.”

Symonds was hurt when he felt that Clarke hadn't shown him enough support when he was stood down from the ODI side.

“Some former teammates will take his side, and feed his conviction that I let him down and put ambition ahead of mateship,” Clarke previously wrote in his autobiography.

“I would say that he let me down too - that if he had understood mateship as a two-way street, he would have seen that I had to do what was right for the whole team.”

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