As the Test calendar edges ever so closer to the highly anticipated Border-Gavaskar Trophy, one of the most infamous incidents that took the cricketing world by storm was the infamous tussle between the former India skipper, Harbhajan Singh and the late Australian all-rounder, Andrew Symonds with the incident being termed as ‘Monkeygate’.
Harbhajan however, clarified his side of the story in an event with Sourav Ganguly, four years ago where the story left the crowd in splits.
“Actually, nobody knows the truth about this monkey gate. Nobody knows, only a Sardar and North India will know what he said. So all this monkey gate and everything is the way Andrew Symonds heard it. But it came from a person from North India who was angry,” said Ganguly.
The incident took place during India’s Test against the Aussies in Sydney, 2008. After the 116th over of India’s first innings, the Indian spinner had a word with the Aussie all-rounder.
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Symonds subsequently reported the incident to the on-field umpire and following the game, he was also handed a one-match ban which resulted in massive uproar.
“My problem was I never used to keep calm. When I was on the field I was one of those warriors. And that is what Dada taught us how to win games abroad and look into the opposition’s eye and they can’t just play the game they want to play. And if Australia want to play aggressively, you have to be aggressive enough to look into their eyes and give them the answers,” Harbhajan Singh revealed.
“That’s exactly what I did, he was just saying a lot of words and in those days my English was as good as Kapil Sharma’s. I barely understood but I continued to hear the F word coming out again and again, and I said ‘Teri Maa Ki…’. I don’t know suddenly there was a complaint about me calling him a monkey or whatever,” he added.
The one-match ban was appealed which the Indian team managed to overturn to a fine for using obscene language. But the incident remains one of the most fiery moments between the two rival nations who are set to meet once again in November, later this year.
Both sides will have their reasons to go all the way and take the win. For India, it is a spot in the World Test Championship that is up for grabs. For Australia, it will be to end their 10-year losing streak against the Indian unit and finally reclaim the BGT 2024 title.
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