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Clarke's friendship-destroying feud with Symonds

Michael Clarke has opened up on the long-running feud which destroyed his relationship with Andrew Symonds.

Writing in his autobiography Michael Clarke: My Story, Clarke revealed how tensions eventually led to Symonds pouring a glass of wine on his head and disowning him as a friend.

The pair were close mates until Symonds' ambition to captain Australia placed strain on the friendship, according to Clarke.

"When he tells me about his ambition to lead, I do everything I can to stop him being pissed off with me," Clarke writes.

MORE: Watson hits back at Clarke's 'tumour' criticism

Clarke and Symonds embrace. Pic: Getty
Clarke and Symonds embrace. Pic: Getty

“‘I wasn’t made vice-captain by my dad,’ I say. ‘It’s not something I’ve gone after.

"They’ve given it to me. You’d make a great captain, Symmo, but what do you want me to do about it?

"You should go and talk to the selectors about it, throw your hat in the ring. I wouldn’t mind at all.’”

Symonds' resentment towards Clarke then manifested in him pouring a glass of wine over the captain's head in Barbados in 2008.

Clarke writes that he was enjoying dinner with Symonds and his girlfriend, as well as Brian Lara.

"Brian mentions a funny incident in a game against Sri Lanka a few years ago, when Symmo hit the ball down the wicket, it smacked into my leg and rebounded in the air, and he was caught," Clarke writes

"As he walked off, he laughingly said to me, ‘You owe me a beer’.

"We are laughing about it, but then suddenly something in Symmo’s brain snaps and he decides he’ll give me that drink now: he pours a glass of wine over my head.

Clarke and Symonds at the 'Monkeygate' hearing. Pic: Getty
Clarke and Symonds at the 'Monkeygate' hearing. Pic: Getty

"It’s a stunning moment. He’s frothing with anger, and Brian has to get between us before Symmo storms out.

"I don’t know for sure what he thinks. Despite my efforts to reconcile, he won’t talk to me again on the tour."

However things only got worse between the pair when Clarke agreed that Symonds should be sent home after missing a team meeting because he was out fishing with a friend.

"To Symmo, that’s another sign that I haven’t put my friend first," Clarke writes.

"That I will sell out my mates for my personal ambition. And to him, I believe, that’s the end of our friendship."

Clarke stood by his decision however, saying that it was instead Symonds who let the team down, and brought the punishment upon himself.

He also depicts his disagreement over the 'Monkeygate' incident in which Clarke urged Symonds to cop a racial slur from Harbhajan Singh and "move on" instead of pressing the issue.

Symonds wasn't actually that offended by the slur, says the skipper, but instead was trying to grab the high ground from India.