Symonds ends break to join Bulls

Andrew Symonds' Queensland comeback will begin on Saturday after he answered a call to help out the injury-depleted one-day side in Alice Springs. Symonds, who had his Cricket Australia contract torn up in May, was due to play only Twenty20 matches for the state as a guest signing, but a recurrence of Chris Swan's groin problem and a knee injury for Glen Batticciotto led to an early return.

Symonds agreed on Wednesday to join the FR Cup squad to face South Australia and will be paid on a match contract. Queensland's selection chairman Ray Phillips said Symonds had been waiting for the call.

"At this stage, this is a one-off with Andrew, but we will look at how things sit with the recovery of the injured players during the tour game with the West Indies and make some plans from there,'' Phillips said. The Bulls are currently on top of the FR Cup table but are also without Ryan Harris (knee), James Hopes (hamstring), Ben Laughlin (abdominal strain) and Grant Sullivan (hamstring), leaving Symonds to provide some much-needed experience with bat and ball.

Until now Symonds was destined for a life as a Twenty20 specialist following his axing from the Australia side for drinking in public in England. That misdemeanour followed a string of more serious offences which had him on a last warning with his Cricket Australia bosses. The decision ended his international career at 26 Tests, 198 ODIs and 14 Twenty20s.

Queensland were prepared to include Symonds in their squad but he did not want to commit to a full season. His last major tournament was the Champions League Twenty20 in India, where his side the Deccan Chargers were knocked out in the first round.

Queensland squad Ryan Broad, Chris Hartley (wk), Lee Carseldine, Andrew Symonds, Wade Townsend, Craig Philipson, Nathan Reardon, Chris Simpson (capt), Nathan Rimmington, Scott Walter, Ben Cutting, Alister McDermott.