Flashback 2008: When the Harbhajan-Symonds ‘Monkeygate’ scandal shook the cricket world
India’s tour of Australia in 2007-08 began with a big defeat in the Boxing Day Test at Melbourne. But the team showed signs of a comeback in the next game. In the New Year Test at the SCG, India had the hosts six wickets down for 134 shortly after lunch on Day 1. But a spree of wrong decisions going Andrew Symonds’ way helped Australia reach 463/10 with Symonds scoring an unbeaten 162.
India gave a strong response as VVS Laxman and Sachin Tendulkar turned up with hundreds at their favourite venue. Whereas the other senior men, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly scored fifties respectively. A middle-order collapse threatened India to concede a lead but Tendulkar carried his fight alongside Harbhajan Singh (63). The duo put on a 129-run stand for the 8th wicket in a quick span as India finished with 532/10.
The incident…
Sachin remained unbeaten on 154 to help India secure a first-innings lead of 69 runs. While batting alongside Tendulkar, his partner Harbhajan seemed to be having a conversation with Symonds. The Australian all-rounder accused Harbhajan of racism for allegedly calling him ‘Monkey’. Symonds was the centre of attention during Australia’s tour of India earlier in 2007, where he was referred as ‘Monkey’ by certain sections of the Indian crowd.
Harbhajan was charged with a Level 3 offence at the end of Day 3 following a complaint by Australian skipper Ricky Ponting. The hearing was scheduled to take place at the end of the 4th day but was postponed until the end of the Test. In the meantime, Australia posted 401/7 in their 2nd innings and bundled out India to 210 to take a 2-0 series lead. They also benefitted from some poor umpiring, courtesy umpire Steve Bucknor.
Harbhajan gets a ban, Symonds gets away
Emotions ran pretty high in both the dressing rooms after the controversial Sydney Test. The spotlight soon shifted to the hearing of Harbhajan’s charge which ended with a ban of three Tests for the spinner as he was found guilty of racist comment over Symonds. Things kept getting worse as the Indian management was not happy with the judgement and there was no evidence to prove that Bhajji did use any words related to racism.
Clouds gloomed over the continuation of the tour with things going against India in Sydney. The board decided to appeal against the ban handed to Harbhajan. Post the final Test at the Adelaide Oval, the appeal hearing was conducted under the ICC Appeals Commissioner Justice John Hansen. Harbhajan was proved guilty of using abusive language and was fined 50% of his match fee for that. He was allowed to play the CB Tri-Series involving Sri Lanka as the 3rd team after missing the last two Tests.
