Cricket - Andrew Symonds Racism Complaint

Australia all-rounder Andrew Symonds, whose blistering century sealed the one-day series against India 4-1 on Sunday, said racist abuse from spectators in the last match had fired him up.The 32-year-old Andrew Symonds was subjected to monkey noises by spectators when he was fielding in Thursday's game in Baroda.Indian cricket fans jeered him all the way back to the pavilion, but some cameras captured the sort of behaviour which sends a chill down the spines of the game's administrators: fans mimicking a monkey, in reference to Andrew Symond's Caribbean heritage.

The International Cricket Council (ICC), which strengthened its anti-racism code last year, has written to Indian officials asking them to comment on events in Baroda.Atnakar Shetty, the Board of Control for Cricket in India chief executive, rejected Andrew Symonds' claims that he was racially abused at Vadodara in the one-day match on Thursday.

Andrew Symonds was subjected to racist taunts and compared to a monkey by some sections of a large and boisterous crowd. "Our message to the Australian public is that every cricketer who comes here deserves to be treated with the respect that we would expect our cricketers to be treated with when they travel abroad," he said.

"There were some things that have happened that I really drew on out there," Andrew Symonds told a news conference after his side's 18-run win in the sixth one-dayer.

"I had plenty of incentive to apply myself," Andrew Symonds said after scoring 107 not out from 88 balls.Man of the match Andrew Symonds lashed nine fours and four sixes for his sixth one-day century and was involved in two half-century partnerships to help his team recover to 317-8 after a middle-order collapse.