Why did Symonds turn his back on cricket?

''He was really the face of our marketing,'' Cricket Australia's Michael Brown says of Andrew Symonds. ''Everybody - male and female - thought he was a great ad for cricket.''

Adding context, Brown notes that it was some effort to cast a shadow over Shane Warne, Adam Gilchrist, Glenn McGrath, Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer. ''But he was up there punching at that weight.'' His endorsements included Ford, Solo, Asics, Skins and Gray-Nicolls.

Langer rates watching Symonds and Hayden rescue Australia from a wobbly 5-84 with a 279-run stand on day two of the Boxing Day Test among his most cherished cricket memories. ''When Symo scored his hundred, his first hundred in Test cricket, he was out in the middle of the MCG with however many people there … the two fishing buddies, the two best mates.

''And the way they celebrated … the way Haydos was so pleased for his great mate, it epitomised everything I believe in about Australian cricket. A couple of great mates, really happy for each other that they'd achieved something special together.''

Four years on, Langer returns to the MCG as Australia's batting coach, while Hayden's Boxing Day stomach churning will be down to not only nerves, but the occupational hazard of crewing on Sydney-to-Hobart fancy Loyal. Literally and metaphorically, Symonds is even further away from the cricket field he marauded over.

Two years after the last of his 26 Tests, and 18 months since he lost the battle to conform to the requirements of the 21st-century cricketer, Symonds is living in Townsville with plans to buy a property nearby in the country of his childhood, where he'll farm cattle, sugar cane, maybe some mangoes. His love of fishing endures; the Pacific Ocean horizon is all that fences him in.

Last Friday, as Mitchell Johnson turned the Ashes series on its head, Queensland Cricket put out a statement saying that Symonds would not be playing in next month's Twenty20 Big Bash, having informed them he was ''moving in a direction that didn't involve playing cricket again for Queensland''. Chief executive Graham Dixon, who is close to Symonds, added that they had been privileged ''to enjoy the benefit of his skills and passion'' over 16 seasons. ''He doesn't owe Queensland Cricket anything,'' Dixon said.

Where the game that can seem like his cursed gift takes Symonds next will be decided at next month's Indian Premier League auction; after three campaigns with Deccan Chargers he is now an uncontracted player with a reserve price of $300,000, not quite the $1.35 million he commanded in the tournament's second year.

Even at 35, and with only a handful of T20 appearances for Surrey this year to showcase his wares, he will surely be snapped up. And so continues the conundrum that has dogged him all along - unique talent guarantees he is in demand, and while it seems he'd be just as happy doing something else, a man can't make the big bucks dangling a rod in the water.

''He worked really hard with trying to come to grips with where cricket had gone to,'' says Brown, who as Cricket Australia's general manager of cricket repeatedly relayed bad news to Symonds as his disciplinary breaches mounted and ultimately ended his international career. ''Unfortunately it wasn't for him, and you move in a different direction.''

Dixon refers to ''that one unfortunate summer, the one that came after [Boxing Day 2006], and served to unravel everything''. He says Symonds ''paid a heavy price'' for the race row with Harbhajan Singh in Sydney, the same game in which he scored his second and last Test century.

Having made it in the form of cricket few thought he had the patience to master - 777 runs came from nine Tests against Sri Lanka, India and West Indies in 2007-08, ensuring a batting average beyond 40 - ''Monkeygate'' left Symonds feeling betrayed by an employer that walked on eggshells through a potentially damaging predicament with India, cricket's new power.

A succession of stuff-ups followed, most of them spiced by alcohol, some - like the 2008 suspension for going fishing instead of attending a team meeting - drew the public to him all the more. In his book, Standing My Ground, Hayden recalls receiving a photo message on his mobile as the latest ''Symo storm'' raged.

''Sporting the blissful smile of an angler who'd filled his creel, Symo proudly displayed a giant barramundi,'' Hayden writes. ''The photo was accompanied by a message: What's all the fuss about?''

When the final straw snapped, and Symonds was again sent home for excessive drinking at last June's Twenty20 World Cup in England, Hayden said his best friend needed to admit he had a problem. Brown says his peers ultimately decided his fate.

''The team was doing certain things, there were certain rules and regulations and expectations that were different to his.''

The sense that he was a little lost was no doubt compounded by the retirements of that core of greats who filled the dressing room and cultivated his love for being an Australian cricketer. As Brown notes, ''He lost a lot of his mates.''

Friends this week described him as being ''in a good place''; Dixon saw him in October when Queensland played a 50-over game in Townsville, and Symonds spent the day meeting cricket volunteers with Michael Kasprowicz.

''The only thing he complained about was that the engine on his boat was playing up and he couldn't get out on the water.'' He says he has embraced the role of mentoring state under-17 cricketer Zac Holm, another Townsville boy.

That he was a great short-form cricketer, and one of the greatest fielders ever, brooks no argument. Langer says his value ran far deeper. ''A lot of people these days - and I was probably one of them - we take ourselves pretty seriously. He always gave the change room a sense of balance and a sense of humour. He'd say it as it was.''

Brown, a former Hawthorn Football Club boss, says Symonds' belief in and commitment to the team was as strong as anyone he has encountered in 20 years in elite sport. ''He'd put his life on the line for his teammates. He was unique - the youngest kid in the team, he'd go out of his way to make friends with, to make sure he was part of the team.''

Langer ponders the question of whether he was torn between a game he was exceptionally good at, and the life it denied him. ''I know he loved his cricket, I know his teammates loved having him in the team, and I know the public loved watching him … Sometimes, finding balance is a really hard thing to do.''

Brown wonders how Australia's batting line-up would look today with Symonds still in it, and having continued the improvement he essayed at the MCG four years ago. Langer says he would have him in his team ''every single day of the week''.

''He's got a great spirit, Symo, a free spirit. You can't fake that power.''