In the Australian, Peter Lalor looks at a falling out between Michael Clarke and Andrew Symonds in the Caribbean this year, a couple of months before Clarke was part of the leadership group that sent Symonds home from Darwin.

Symonds and vice-captain Michael Clarke were once as close as a Brisbane summer, they were cricket's most effective offside fielding team and got on well socially, but things have had a tendency to turn arctic of late.

The pair allegedly had a blow-up in a hotel bar in the West Indies. Clarke, the team's vice-captain and one of the more dedicated cricketers on or off the field, chipped Symonds one night when he found him drinking in the bar with former West Indies great Brian Lara.

He is said to have suggested that Symonds had better be in good shape to take the field the next day, a suggestion not taken in good humour.

Symonds blew up and the pair had a very heated argument. They later patched things up, but relations have again become strained with Clarke leading the charge to have the belligerent all-rounder sent home from Darwin last month and placed on notice about his cricketing future.