‘We Will Miss You’: Sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik’s tribute to Andrew Symonds

Sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik paid tribute to former Australian cricketer Andrew Symonds who died in a car accident on Saturday night. Pattnaik, who is famous for his sand art, created a sand sculpture of Symonds at Puri beach in Odisha. The sand sculpture has a message as well which reads, “We will miss you… Tributes to Andrew Symonds”.

Sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik paid tribute to Australian cricket star #AndrewSymonds through his sand art at Puri beach in Odisha.The cricket legend died in a car crash on May 15. pic.twitter.com/wDSOaph6LH
— ANI (@ANI) May 15, 2022

Pattnaik paid homage to Symonds by posting a photo of his sand art made at the Puri beach. Pattnaik feels that “it is a huge loss to the world of cricket.”

“Sad to know about Andrew Symonds passing away in a tragic accident. It is a huge loss to the world of cricket. My sand art at Puri beach in India with message “We will miss you” RIP,” Pattnaik said in a tweet.

The 46-year-old former Aussie all-rounder died on the spot as his car spun off the road in the Townsville area of Queensland, Australia.

The England-born cricketer had made his debut in the longest format of the game back in 2004 against Sri Lanka at Galle. In Test cricket, he played 26 matches and scored 1462 runs at an average of 40.61. He scored two centuries and 10 half centuries in Test.

In ODIs, he played his first game for Australia in 1998 against Pakistan at Lahore. Overall, he represented Australia 198 times in this format. He scored 5088 runs and picked up 133 wickets in ODI cricket. Symonds hit six centuries and 30 half centuries in ODIs.

He has also been a part of Australia’s two World Cup-winning squads- 2003 and 2007.

In the shortest format of the game, Symonds played his first international match against New Zealand in 2005 at Auckland. Overall, he scored 337 runs in 14 T20I matches and claimed eight wickets. In T20I, Symonds bagged two half centuries.

In the Indian Premier League, he played his first match for Deccan Chargers (now defunct) against Kolkata Knight Riders, in 2008. Later, he also went on to represent five-time champions Mumbai Indians as well.

Despite his heroics and prolific performance on the field, Symonds often found himself associated with several controversial incidents off the field. Even on the field, he was involved in the Monkeygate scandal which also hit the reputation of Harbhajan Singh