The Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds has delivered a public statement of apology for his alcohol-fuelled "lump of shit' jibe at New Zealander Brendon McCullum.
But 33-year-old Symonds must wait until tomorrow to discover exactly how tired Cricket Australia's executive have grown of his many misadventures.
There was predictably strong support for Symonds yesterday from national team captain Ricky Ponting, who labelled the recuperating allrounder as "vital" to his South African tour plans.
At a purely cricketing level, there seems little thought to cutting Symonds loose, with Ponting, chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch and coach Tim Nielsen all thought to be united in their desire to have the Queenslander in the team as soon as he has recovered from knee surgery.
However, CA chief executive James Sutherland and operations chief Michael Brown will be significantly perturbed to know that Symonds again put himself in the wrong position by being out drinking prior to a pre-arranged interview commitment with a radio show on Friday evening.
Symonds' apology arrived via an email from his management yesterday afternoon, referring mainly to McCullum but not the drinking.
Much like Symonds' much-publicised altercation with a photo-seeking fan in Brisbane earlier in the summer, the content of the interview itself, and the image it projected, is unlikely to be of as much concern as the fact he had been out drinking.
