[8] He spent the early part of his childhood in Charters Towers, northern Queensland, where his father taught at the private All Souls St Gabriels School, which Symonds attended.

[14] A few years later, Symonds made his Queensland Premier Cricket debut for the Gold Coast Dolphins as a 15-year-old and hit a remarkable double century in his first game.

He was an exceptional fielder, with a report prepared by ESPNcricinfo in late 2005 showing that since the 1999 Cricket World Cup, he had effected the equal-fifth-most run-outs in One Day International (ODI) cricket of any fieldsman, with the fourth-highest success rate,[16] with Ricky Ponting rating him the best fielder he had seen, and a better and more versatile one than Herschelle Gibbs and Jonty Rhodes because Symonds was taller than them, giving him better defensive coverage range and had greater throw power outside the circle.

[17] He was very agile for his size and weight (medium-heavy build; 187 cm tall), had excellent reflexes, was able to take catches well and had a powerful and accurate throwing arm.

[20] Shortly afterwards, Symonds was selected as part of the England A team that was to tour Pakistan in the winter; however, he decided not to go, instead choosing to pursue an international career for Australia.

[25] Initially, he was considered an England-qualified player; however, following his first season of county cricket in 1995, he declared that his allegiances lay with Australia when he chose not to tour Pakistan with the England A team.

The record was equalled by Graham Napier for Essex against Surrey in 2011, and stood until May 2022 when Ben Stokes hit 17 sixes in an innings for Durham against Worcestershire.

[27] Symonds added four more sixes in the second innings, to beat the old record of 17 in a match, set by Warwickshire's Jim Stewart against Lancashire at Blackpool in 1959.

He also featured for Kent in the inaugural edition of the 2003 Twenty20 Cup and played an influential knock of an unbeaten 96 runs off just 37 balls with a strike rate of 259.45 against Hampshire in a group stage match.

[44] However, at the start of his international career, Symonds struggled to make an impact with the bat and ball, although his fielding was of high quality, and was not a regular member of the playing XI.

[49] In the first match against Pakistan, Symonds scored 143 not out to guide Australia from 4/86 to 8/310 en route to an 82-run victory,[50] a performance described by Kanta Murali of The Hindu as "one of the best knocks in one-day cricket history".

[59][60] In March 2004, Symonds made his Test debut in Australia's tour of Sri Lanka, with the selectors citing his bowling and his power hitting against spin bowlers as "ideal" for the subcontinent conditions.

[61] Playing as a batsman, Symonds encountered difficulty against Muttiah Muralitharan on the dusty, spinning Sri Lankan tracks, failing to pass 25 in any of his four innings,[62] and was dropped after two Test matches in favour of Katich.

[68] At the 2006 Allan Border Medal count, Symonds would have won the One Day Player of the Year award as he polled the most votes, but was ineligible due to having been suspended because of a drinking binge during the 2005 Ashes tour.

He was named Player of the Match twice in the group stage: once as he hit a half-century in the opening game,[70] and then again after scoring 32 and taking three wickets, both in victories over Sri Lanka.

[74] After Australia secured victory in the third game of the final, Symonds won Player of the Series honours, having scored 389 runs and recorded 11 wickets.

[92] Symonds remarkably made a relatively quick recovery after returning for Australia's win in their last preliminary World Cup match against South Africa.

In a rain-affected game, shortened to 38/36 overs per side, Symonds scored 23 not out during Australia's innings,[95] and bowled the final ball of the tournament to seal victory in a contest that concluded in near-total darkness.

[97][98] During the subsequent Sri Lankan tour of Australia in late 2007, Symonds had good form with the bat but suffered an ankle injury, which ruled him out for the remainder of the Test series.

[101] In January 2008, Indian spin bowler Harbhajan Singh received a three-match ban after a complaint that he had racially abused Symonds during the third day of the Second Test at the SCG.

Hansen later admitted that he "could have imposed a more serious penalty if he was made aware by the ICC of the bowler's previous transgressions"—including a suspended one Test Match ban.

The ICC claimed the "database and human errors ... played a part in Harbhajan Singh escaping a more severe penalty during his appeal hearing in Adelaide".

[103] Hansen also criticised Symonds in his report accusing him of swearing at Harbhajan after a friendly gesture by the Indian bowler towards Brett Lee.

[106] In his 2013 autobiography At the Close of Play, Ricky Ponting expressed his disillusionment with Cricket Australia for failing to support Symonds, who, though the victim of abuse, was painted as a villain.

[107] During the second final of the 2007–08 Commonwealth Bank Series against India on 4 March 2008, Symonds shoulder charged a male streaker who had entered the playing arena.

[109] Symonds was set to play for Australia in the August 2008 series against Bangladesh in Darwin, but was sent home to Queensland after missing a team meeting while out fishing.

Following a hearing with general manager Michael Brown, he was fined $4,000, instructed to work with a psychologist, and indefinitely barred from selection until he was deemed to have been successfully rehabilitated.

He was finally recalled in April to play ODIs against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates,[117] but was not selected for the 2009 Ashes series, with young all-rounders Shane Watson, Andrew McDonald and Marcus North being preferred.

[133] On 21 June 2009, he played a game for the Wynnum Manly Seagulls against an all-star team featuring some noted players, including Marcus Bai and Steve Renouf.

[141] A minute's silence was observed at the start of the final day of the match between two of Symonds' former English clubs, Kent and Surrey, which was taking place when he died.