Cricketspeler tackelt streaker.

quote:

It was enough to make controversial Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh think twice about niggling Australian allrounder Andrew Symonds ever again.

Training with NRL club the Brisbane Broncos paid off for Symonds tonight when he pulled off a monster shoulder charge to end an unsuspecting streaker's run in the second tri-series final against India at the Gabba.

It has been a tension-filled summer for Symonds in the fallout over the Harbhajan racial row. And Symonds' anxiety was hardly helped when the out of form allrounder walked onto the Gabba tonight with Australia precariously placed at 3-32 chasing 259 for victory. But a grinning, naked man unwittingly let Symonds blow off some steam.

During the 10th over, play was held up as the male streaker showed security a clean pair of heels - and a whole lot more. But as the smug pitch invader rounded Symonds to complete his naked lap, the burly Queenslander put on a hit that left the intruder air-borne - and the crowd gasping.

Security quickly pounced as a nonchalant Symonds hardly moved at the non-striker's end, as if it was all in a day's work. Perhaps these days nothing surprises Symonds after a controversy-filled summer. It was a hit expected from a man who seriously contemplated taking up rugby league just six years ago.

Symonds trained an off-season with the Broncos with his cricket career in limbo before the 2003 World Cup, prompting a heart to heart with Brisbane coach Wayne Bennett about a possible switch to league.

It allowed him to come off much better than former Australian seamer Terry Alderman who damaged his shoulder so seriously tackling an English pitch invader in Perth in 1982-83 that he was ruled out for the rest of the Ashes. But Australian cricketers have been known to make an example of nude intruders.

In 1976 former Australian captain Greg Chappell was so incensed by a male streaker he spanked him on the bottom with his bat at Auckland's Eden Park.

Test teammate Kerry O'Keeffe tonight recalled Chappell was found guilty of assault after a complaint from the streaker. "When he comes to he might want to consider his options," O'Keeffe joked on ABC Radio, referring to tonight's dazed intruder.

Symonds could face a serious punishment if the International Cricket Council decides that he breached section 4.2 of the player's code of conduct relating to a physical assault of a rival player, an official or a spectator. It carries a ban ranging anywhere from five Test matches or 10 limited-overs internationals up to a life ban.

The spectator is expected to be fined $3,000 for invading the pitch - but faces a possible jail term for wilful exposure.