Andrew Symonds, who was sent home after he went fishing when he should have been with the team, has been backed by former captain and batting great Greg Chappell.

Chappell believes all-rounder Symonds, 33, may be struggling with the constant stresses of the modern game and dealing with the media spotlight that magnifies his every move.

“There are a lot of stresses away from the field,” Chappell told The Age. “The constant focus of attention on everything that you do, anything that goes wrong will be highlighted.

“Learning to deal with all of that and understanding how it fits into a successful career and a successful team is a very important part of the mentoring role.

He added: “He needs to have time away and work out what's important for him. Hopefully he decides playing for Australia is very important because he is a terrific cricketer and we all want to see him playing for Australia as long as possible.”

At a time when recent greats like Adam Gilchrist, Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Justin Langer, Damien Martyn and Stuart MacGill have all bowled out of the time, experienced and key senior player such as Symonds should be vital to Australia at a time of such drastic transition.