Nearly 11 years after the controversial Sydney Test of 2008 threatened to ruin India-Australia cricket ties forever, the ghost of ‘Monkeygate’ continues to survive.
Indian cricketer Harbhajan Singh has called Andrew Symonds ‘a good fiction writer’ after the now-retired Australian cricketer’s claims that Harbhajan ‘broke down crying’ while apologising for the ugly spat a few years later.
Symonds’ revelation is scheduled to air as part of a Fox Cricket documentary on Monday, 17 December, and teasers for the same circulated across the internet a day ahead of the same.
Harbhajan was prompt in his response, replying via his Twitter account.
Earlier on Sunday, 16 December, India’s 2011 World Cup winner had tweeted his initial response to the stories circulating around Symonds’ claims in the to-be-aired Fox Cricket documentary – questioning the Australian two-time World Cup winner’s comments.
In conversation with former Australia team-mates Adam Gilchrist and Brett Lee, Symonds said that Harbhajan’s effort to apologise for the events from Sydney 2008 happened in private, at a party in 2011, when the two were team-mates at Mumbai Indians in the IPL.
“We go to a very wealthy man's place for a barbecue, drinks and dinner one night and the whole team's there and he had guests there, and Harbhajan said ‘mate, can I speak to you for a minute out in the garden out the front’,” Symonds said in Monkeygate: Ten Years On, as per reports on ESPNcricinfo.
He goes, ‘look, I’ve got to say sorry to you for what I did to you in Sydney. I apologise, I hope I didn’t cause you, your family, your friends too much harm and I really apologise for what I said, I shouldn’t have said it’. And he actually broke down crying, and I could see that was a huge weight off his shoulders, he had to get rid of it. We shook hands and I gave him a hug and said: ‘Mate, it’s all good. It’s dealt with’.”Andrew Symonds, as quoted by ESPNcricinfo
The ‘Monkeygate’ saga had very nearly seen India withdraw from their tour of Australia in 2008. Harbhajan was initially found guilty of racial vilification by the ICC, a decision that was later overturned.
Symonds, over the years, has claimed that the incident proved pivotal to his downward spiral as an international cricketer – admitting that a disillusionment with the sport and its political side pushed him towards excessive drinking.
The duo did appear to have forged a cordial relationship at the Mumbai Indians over the IPL 2011 season, with Harbhajan even publicly stating Symonds and he did ‘not have any problems at all’.
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