KEY POINTS:
Big-mouthed allrounder Andrew Symonds has lobbed another hand grenade into transtasman cricket relations on the eve of Chappell-Hadlee Trophy series.
Symonds renewed his attack on Brendon McCullum before last night's Australian domestic Twenty20 final by calling the New Zealand wicketkeeper a "lump of shit".
This followed an attack earlier in the week when he described New South Wales' controversial move to bring McCullum to Sydney for the final as "un-Australian".
Cricket Australia acting chief executive Michael Brown was yesterday handed a transcript of the radio interview during which Symonds made the remarks, with the expectation he will face some form of censure. A verdict is expected on Tuesday at the earliest.
"They're trying to use him [McCullum] as the out because he's a Kiwi. Yep, we love to hate them, but he's the lump of shit, sorry, lump of cow dirt," Symonds ranted.
"To get yourself to that position and if you haven't brought anybody in, I wouldn't be changing a winning team. It doesn't matter about McCullum, mate, he could have been Irish, he still would have got it.
"It's not his fault, he's doing his job and trying to earn a wage. But what happened here is an injustice... at the end of the day somebody is still going to miss out."
His comments have provoked dismay here. New Zealand Cricket chief executive Justin Vaughan said there was no way the comments could be condoned but he would wait to see what action Cricket Australia took before deciding how to approach the matter.
"You can't talk about your fellow players like that," Vaughan said from Sydney where he is taking a brief break. "You can't condone those types of comments. We'd never expect one of our players to talk about anybody like that."
Last year NZC decided against taking formal action against Scott Styris after the allrounder sent two expletive-laden text messages to former teammate Mark Richardson, though a NZC spokesman at the time said "he [Styris] will be left in no doubt that that was not appropriate behaviour".
Coincidentally, Vaughan had breakfast with McCullum yesterday.
"It's fair to say he's not enjoying the criticism he's received from some quarters," Vaughan said.
The head of the New Zealand Cricket Players' Association, Heath Mills, joined the chorus of disapproval.
"I'm obviously disappointed in the comments. They clearly show a lack of understanding in the evolving nature of world cricket. These situations are going to be come more common as major associations and franchises worldwide look to maximise their chances of making the lucrative Champions League."
