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Picture Credit: Twitter

One of the finest all-rounders to grace the cricket field, Andrew Symonds died in an unfortunate accident, aged 46 earlier this year. He was a part of 26 Tests, 198 ODIs and 14 T20Is, and scored a total of 6927 runs, laced with eight centuries. The Warwickshire-born was a part of the champion Australian team in the 2003 and 2007 World Cup.

According to the latest reports by NewsCorp, Riverway Stadium (previously Tony Ireland Stadium) in Townsville is expected to take the name of the late all-rounder to honour him. The same development was finalized after the culmination of a Townsville City Council meeting in July. The Townsville City Council Councillor Maurie Soars has reckoned that Symonds did a lot of good work to uplift the game of junior cricketers and improve the local cricket.

"The work he did around here with the juniors and the local cricket scene was beyond compare and he did it without a voice. He did not want to take away or distract from the efforts that were being provided,” said Townsville City Council.

Symonds’ Stadium to host an ODI series between Australia and Zimbabwe in August

The Riverway Stadium (which will now be named after Symonds) will host the three-match ODI series between Australia and Zimbabwe later this month. The matches will take place from 28 August to September 3. In 2014, the ground has hosted an ODI game between Hong Kong and Papua New Guinea, and a T20I game involving Ireland and Papua New Guinea in 2016.

It will be the first occasion the Aussie team visited the African nation after featuring in the Tri-series in 2014. Currently, Zimbabwe is facing Bangladesh, and will soon host India as well. It has certainly been an optimistic year for Zimbabwe as they qualified for the T20 World Cup scheduled later in the year.