Australian player issue

[am Bays]

A reasonably balanced article on the "affair" IMO. Whilst it is a tad too sympathetic to Symonds it does give a good synopsis on the issues leading up to him being sent home.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/sport/cricket/symonds-just-a-fish-out-of-water/2009/06/05/1243708626644.html

[The Jack]

Symonds for SA? His required salary might be a bit hot for the Bulls. SA needs a 'star' and would surely have room to move.
Not sure of my thoughts on this, but...just a thought...

Why would his salary be high??? Id offer him $100 and a carton of West End....... then only play him in the 20/20s!!!!

Surely we could give him something decent to drink! Draught, yuk! He'd have to be worth a carton of Boag's Premium surely!

[smac]

Symonds for SA? His required salary might be a bit hot for the Bulls. SA needs a 'star' and would surely have room to move.
Not sure of my thoughts on this, but...just a thought...

Why would his salary be high??? Id offer him $100 and a carton of West End....... then only play him in the 20/20s!!!!

Surely we could give him something decent to drink! Draught, yuk! He'd have to be worth a carton of Boag's Premium surely!

Surely after the improvements made in player attitudes last season we would not want him in our squad? Interesting question though.

[rod_rooster]

Roy has some serious issues boys and girls. How hard is it to stop at a few beers?

Spose it depends on how bad his drinking problem is...

I think we can assume he is addicted - a true alcoholic. In which case if he has one drink he is likely to drink till he passes out.

Interesting assumption Psyber. What evidence have you got that he drinks till he passes out? His problems appear more to be that he is easily agitated and that alcohol can worsen this. Still even then i am only jumping to conclusions based on heresay and not knowing all the facts. To say we can assume he is a true alcoholic is just stupid IMHO.

[Rik E Boy]

If Symonds was a true Alcoholic then he wouldn't be able to play Cricket unless he was drunk. Every Alco I've ever met are actually capable of amazing things when drunk but you take that bottle away and they'd be lucky to be able to wipe their own arse. Sibe is a wise man but he's missed the urinal by a fair way with his comment.

regards,

REB

[Psyber]

A true alcoholic is basically someone who has used alcohol for long enough and heavily enough to have established a physiological change that results in withdrawal symptoms and craving for alcohol when the last fix is wearing off. Then they need enormous motivation and support - usually inpatient - to quit drinking even if they know it is in their best interest to do so. It works much the same as addiction to anything else. A clue to this state is when the person makes the declaration that they can "stop any time", but this is followed by making excuses and rationalisations for caving in within 14 days.

The fact that this player can't stop even when it is clearly in his interest to do so, and he has presumably made promises to the ACB in the interest of saving his career, is strong suggestive evidence he has reached this point.

Rod, I didn't say he did drink till he passed out, but that if he is in this physiological dependency state he is likely to.
Agitation is one of the early symptoms of any drug withdrawal, but is commonly used as an excuse for "just one more" dose of whatever. it is more likely to be the result of the alcohol or drug misuse not the cause of it.

REB, in early drug withdrawal a small dose just sufficient to offset the withdrawal symptoms will improve performance, but, once it gets beyond that, the addict won't stop there and will dose up to the point where their judgment and reflexes are impaired.

[Rik E Boy]

You mentioned the psyhcological addiction rather than the physical and this was what I was referring to. As a younger man I never knew when to stop either but still managed a six month dry spell when I was 21 without any of the withdrawal symptoms of which you speak. Now the ciggies on the other hand were a different matter!

regards,

REB

[Dog_ger]

A true alcoholic.

A True alcoholic goes to meetings

[Psyber]

You mentioned the psyhcological addiction rather than the physical and this was what I was referring to. As a younger man I never knew when to stop either but still managed a six month dry spell when I was 21 without any of the withdrawal symptoms of which you speak. Now the ciggies on the other hand were a different matter!
regards,
REB

Looking back at my earlier post, REB, I just used the general term addiction, meaning the changed physiological state. The usual term for psychological dependence is habituiton.
Yes, people vary in how long they can have the habituition before the onset of physiological addiction, which is what causes withdrawal effects.
People who have never been noticeably drunk in their lives can become addicted and get withdrawal symptoms, if alcohol has been in their system consistently enough for long enough for the physiological shift to occur.

Ciggies, via nicotine which mimics acetyl choline, have a much more direct coupling with the neuro-transmitter receptor system in the brain.
It is more insidious, and they tend to get you hooked more quickly...

[Q.]

There's a big difference between an alcoholic and a bloke who has great disdain for Cricket Australia.

[Psyber]

There's a big difference between an alcoholic and a bloke who has great disdain for Cricket Australia.

True. I wonder what the true facts are in this case, but not enough to spend much time trying to find out...
But the pattern suggests there is more to it than just disdain.

[Q.]

There's a big difference between an alcoholic and a bloke who has great disdain for Cricket Australia.

True. I wonder what the true facts are in this case, but not enough to spend much time trying to find out...
But the pattern suggests there is more to it than just disdain.

We can only speculate really. My take on it is it represents complete disenchantment with CA and part of him expressing dissent includes breaking team rules, which in itself involves alcohol. He's probably no more dependent on alcohol than you or I, just doesn't want to make sacrifices for people he doesn't respect (management, not teammates).

[Psyber]

We can only speculate really. My take on it is it represents complete disenchantment with CA and part of him expressing dissent includes breaking team rules, which in itself involves alcohol. He's probably no more dependent on alcohol than you or I, just doesn't want to make sacrifices for people he doesn't respect (management, not teammates).

True - from there we get into, "Which came first the chicken or the egg?"