Former Australian Test cricketer Andrew Symonds killed in Queensland car crash

Former Australian Test cricketer Andrew Symonds has been killed in a Queensland car crash. The 46-year-old was involved in a single-vehicle crash late on Saturday.

Police are investigating the crash, which occurred at Hervey Range, about 50km from Townsville.

“Early information indicates, shortly after 11pm the car was being driven on Hervey Range Road, near Alice River Bridge when it left the roadway and rolled,” Queensland Police said in a statement.

“Emergency services attempted to revive the 46-year-old driver and sole occupant, however, he died of his injuries.”

Former Australian captain Allan Border paid tribute to Symonds, who played 26 Tests for Australia and was a crowd favourite in the short format game as a big-hitting allrounder.

“He hit the ball a long way and just wanted to entertain. He was, in a way, a little bit of an old-fashioned cricketer,” Border told the Nine Network.

In recent years Symonds had worked as a TV commentator for Fox Sports and was a regular on the microphone for Big Bash League broadcasts.

“He was an adventurer. Loved his fishing, he loved hiking, camping,” Border said.

Symonds, nicknamed ‘Roy’, was charismatic on the field, often wearing zinc cream and at times sporting dreadlocks.

“People liked his very laid-back style,” Border said. “He lived in Townsville. When I spoke to him, I think he still had a hundred head of cattle he used to muster.

“Symo away from the cameras and away from the spotlight, loved, I think, a bit of solitude and that is why he loved his fishing. Loved his own time.”

Symonds’s death follows the shock demise of cricketing peer Shane Warne, who died in March in Thailand.