Former India coach Greg Chappell has advised beleaguered all-rounder Andrew Symonds to learn to cope with the constant media glare and handle off-field stress.
"There are a lot of stresses away from the field. The constant focus of attention on everything that you do, anything that goes wrong will be highlighted," Chappel was quoted as saying in The Age.
"Learning to deal with all of that and understanding how it fits into a successful career and a successful team is a very important part of the mentoring role," he added.
Symonds, who was sent home after he decided to go fishing instead of attending a team meeting, has been going through emotional stress and is even reportedly thinking to quit international cricket.
But Chappel is hoping that Symonds will make a comeback and advised him to take his time and give it a deep thought.
"He needs to have time away and work out what's important for him. Hopefully he decides playing for Australia is very important because he is a terrific cricketer and we all want to see him playing for Australia as long as possible," he said.
Meanwhile, Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland said they completely supported Symonds and hoped the 33-year-old would be in the team as soon as possible as they needed players who are up and going.
"He has our absolute support and we've already gone to great lengths to ensure appropriate processes are in place for him," he said.
"There's some discipline issues related to it, but ultimately it's a welfare issue. We all want Symonds up and going, playing cricket for Australia," he added.
