O'Donnell played as an all-rounder for Victoria in the Sheffield Shield between 1984 and 1993, scoring a century in his first match.

[2] He went on to play 6 Test matches in 1985, 5 on the Ashes tour of England and one at home, but with a low bowling strike rate in 5 and 4 day cricket, he was more successful in the shorter form of the game.

Seen as a limited-overs specialist with clever medium pace bowling and explosive lower order hitting, he played 87 ODIs between 1985 and 1992, scoring 1242 runs and taking 108 wickets in his career.

[3] He recovered with treatment to return to the Australian One-Day team in the 1988–89 season and played 43 more limited-overs matches till 10 December 1991 and claimed 56 wickets and made 5 match winning 50 plus scores including the fastest half-century in One Day Internationals (18 balls v Sri Lanka, Sharjah, 1990, which lasted for 6 years until Sri Lankan Sanath Jayasuriya scored 50 from 17 balls v Pakistan at Singapore on 7 April 1996).

[9] As a junior, Simon played Australian rules football for Assumption College, Kilmore, where he kicked 100 goals in his senior year.

Coincidentally, Kevin O'Donnell played alongside two more notable Australian cricketers; Sam Loxton and Keith Miller, members of the 1948 Invincibles.

O'Donnell's son James made his AFL debut for Western Bulldogs playing against Carlton on 13 May 2023.

O'Donnell hosted Melbourne radio station Sport 927's morning program with Kevin Bartlett until 2004.

[13] During the mid-1990s as part of his work with Channel 9, O'Donnell was a regular on the daytime program The Midday Show, teaming up with former rugby league footballer Paul "Fatty" Vautin on Fridays to give an overview of the weekends sporting events, usually the AFL and NSWRL competitions, and to give their racing tips.

The pair would generally get into silly situations (e.g. coming out onto the set dressed in blowup Sumo suits), or would be on location such as in early 1994 when O'Donnell was taken on some hot laps of the high speed Calder Park Thunderdome oval racetrack in Melbourne with multiple AUSCAR champion Brad Jones.

[14] In November 2011, it was announced that O'Donnell would replace James Brayshaw as host of The Sunday Footy Show.

[15] O'Donnell made his first class debut for Victoria against South Australia at the MCG in February 1984.

[16] The following summer his bowling gathered attention when he took the wickets of Kepler Wessels and Allan Border in Sheffield Shield game against Queensland, as well as making 54.

[19] He made 78 in a run-heavy game against the touring West Indies[20] and hit 42 off 43 balls and 129 against Western Australia.

As well as being a more than useful medium-pace bowler O'Donnell has the potential to be a leading batsman, having scored a hard-hitting century against Western Australia in Perth last week.

[28] Kept on in the one day team he took two wickets against Sri Lanka[29] then scored some useful runs in a rare Australian victory over the West Indies.

[30] In the World Championship of Cricket, O'Donnell had a fantastic game against Pakistan, making 74 and taking 2–42.

"[36] O'Donnell played in the Australian team for the one day internationals, taking two crucial wickets in the second.

[43][44] However fellow all rounder Greg Matthews took 5–22 in the same game and he was preferred to O'Donnell, who was made 12th man.

[55] Allan Border said that O'Donnell, Dean Jones and Steve Waugh had been Australia's stand out players of the series.

But two days into India not only did the big lump come back but he had a couple of partners and that's when I thought I was in a bit of strife.

"I knew I was within a week of going home to find out what was wrong and it really frightened me... Before the final at our team meeting I was fined by teammates for not being part of celebrations.

"[67] O'Donnell commenced chemotherapy and received the good wishes of Prime Minister Bob Hawke.

[78] He played in the Australian one day team that toured India in late 1989,[79] and had a mediocre tournament with the exception of 3–48 against Sri Lanka.

His batting form was better that summer, scoring centuries against the touring Sri Lanka side and Tasmania.

[95] O'Donnell was selected in Australia's one day side for 1991–92 but had to withdraw due to a dislocated shoulder.

[102] Australia struggled during the World Cup, failing to make the semi-finals, and Allan Border later wondered if omitting O'Donnell was a mistake.

[104] Victoria struggled that summer and O'Donnell's captaincy came under criticism for lack of imagination and aggression.

O'Donnell: "I agree where there's smoke there's fire, and comments like that aren't made unless they come from a pretty reliable source.

[106] Victoria did make the final of the domestic one day tournament that year but performed poorly in the Sheffield Shield and O'Donnell began to seriously reconsider his future.