Something as simple as leaving the team hotel may have cost Symonds his contract, spot in the side and his international career.

Cricket Australia (CA) has admitted that Symonds' indiscretion, which saw him sent home from England for breaching team rules, was a relatively minor infraction, but given his long record there was little option but to take the course of action.

CA spokesman Peter Young insists that Symonds' actions were in breach of his CA contract and he has put his pending 12-month deal under serious threat.

"He's in breach of contract and the disciplinary action is that we've stood him down and brought him home," Young told Melbourne radio station 3AW.

"The indiscretion itself was not major and if it had been any other player it would have been a disciplinary issue that would have happened and the world would have moved on without a hiccup.

"Broadly speaking, he broke team rules. He broke team rules by going out when he wasn't suppose to, by leaving the hotel without advising where he had gone, all of that is in breach of team rules."

Previous record

Young said the latest indiscretion, which seems somewhat minor for a player who has been accused of all manner of things over the past five years, had to be taken in the context of Symonds' previous behaviour.

"The concern we had is that it comes out of a long series of indiscretions and it was in breach of some very specific commitments he made before we approved that he undertake this tour to England," he said.

"I don't know what was going through his head but all of the team and team management and support staff know what the rules are and everybody else manages to get them right."

It now appears that Symonds' colourful and controversial international career is over, with discussions on a new contract, which was offered to Symonds by CA just three weeks ago, on hold.

"We've advised him that our willingness to offer him a contract for the next year is now on ice and we will need to resolve that in the next few days," Young said.