"Just Push My Bicep Up": Ricky Ponting Shares Hilarious Anecdote About Andrew Symonds

Former Australian cricketers paid rich tributes to Andrew Symonds in a memorial service on Friday. Symonds, 46, was killed in a single-vehicle accident in northern Queensland earlier this month, leaving Australian cricket reeling once more following the recent and unexpected deaths of greats Shane Warne and Rod Marsh. Family, friends, fans and former teammates gathered to celebrate his life at a public memorial service at a stadium in the coastal city of Townsville, where he lived.

Symonds was remembered by his former teammates Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist and Darren Lehmann among others. Ponting shared an interesting story about Symonds which gives an insight into his tough personality.

"In a one-day series in Australia before we left for the 2007 World Cup, he tore his bicep while he was batting. We had the World Cup a couple of weeks later. He was trying to bat with one arm. He called the physio up, pulled his shirt and his whole bicep had basically dropped on top of his elbow joint. He told the physio, “Just push my bicep up a bit, put a tape around it and I'll be fine!” Ponting recalled, drawing laughter from the people present in the memorial.

'He would do anything if it meant giving his mates a better chance of winning the game.'Ricky Ponting recalls how Andrew Symonds just wanted to keep batting even after tearing his bicep off just weeks before the 2007 World Cup. pic.twitter.com/wBiF5FjnsK

“I knew how important he was going to be for the World Cup, so I was like, 'get him off the bloody ground!'. It was another big decision we had to make there because it (the injury) was like touch and go. History said that he was the player we knew could win us the World Cup with his own bat. His work ethic was always there.