Oz will pay for Symond's absence: Kirsten

Melbourne, Sep 5 (UNI) Asserting that the abscense of troubled all-rounder Andrew Symonds from the India tour will cost Australia dearly, coach Gary Kirsten said it will reduce tensions during the upcoming series.

''There is a lot of hype around him and the quality of player that he is, and also I gather there is a lot of tension around from what happened in the last series,'' Kirsten was quoted as saying by ' The Age'.

''To not have him around...does that alleviate it? Does it make it better? I don't know the answer. But I don't think it takes the gloss off the Test series,'' the South African said.

''One thing we must always be aware of is the game is bigger than the individual,'' he added.

Symonds has had a history of controversies with both the Indian players and the crowds.

The burly all-rounder also figured prominently along with off-spinner Harbhajan Singh in the racism row during the Sydney Test last summer.

Recently, Symonds was dropped from the Australian team after he missed a compulsory team meeting to go on a fishing trip before the first one-dayer of the three match ODI series against Bangladesh in Darwin.

The 33-year-old is likely to miss the India series and Kirsten think it will be better for India because filling the void created by Symond's abscence will be a very tough job for Australia.

''To not have those types of individuals means they are going to be replaced by more inexperienced players, so we will hopefully be able to exploit (that),'' said Kirsten.

''We all know with the Australian set-up that they always replace those individuals with quality players, but in the heat of Test match battle sometimes experience counts for a lot,'' he said.

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