Symonds still not a true Australian

Andrew Symonds' failure to make the starting XI for Australia A yesterday gives Gloucestershire fresh hope that he can play for them again.

Symonds, Birmingham-born but brought up in Australia, committed himself to playing for an Australia representative side this week. That decision initially backfired when he was made 12th man for the Australian second- string side who beat the West Indies by six wickets in a one-day match in Melbourne.

Last winter the 21-year-old batsman turned down a place on England's A tour, preferring to play state cricket in Australia and if he had played yesterday it would have meant he no longer counted as an English player.

The Test and County Cricket Board said yesterday that because Symonds was only 12th man in the A side's six-wicket win, his dual-nationality status still applies and he could yet play for the county again.

Tony Brown, the TCCB's administration manager, said: "The regulations state that a person must have played for whatever country to make him ineligible. But he didn't play, he was only 12th man."

ONE-DAY MATCH (Melbourne): West Indies 217 for 8 (S Chanderpaul 72; 50 overs); Australia A 218 for 4 (I J Harvey 67no, D S Lehmann 63no; 44.4 overs). Australia A won by six wickets.