Former Australian all-rounder, Andrew Symonds once again cleared his position on the infamous Monkey Gate incident in the controversial Sydney Test during India's 2008 tour of Australia and reflected back how the whole ugly saga proved to be the beginning of his end in International cricket. 

The Catalyst, Symonds says, proved to be the verbal altercation with Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, who allegedly called him a “monkey” during that match. The once explosive middle-order stalwart has now stated that it wasn't the first time Singh crossed the line with him.

“I’d spoken to Harbhajan the (ODI) series before in India, he’d called me a monkey before in India,” he said during a Fox Sports show, “I went into their dressing room and said, ‘Can I speak to Harbhajan for a minute outside please?’ So he came outside and I said, ‘Look, the name calling’s got to stop or else it’s going to get out of hand," he revealed, "We’ve got a few names for you blokes and you’ve obviously got a few names for us and that’s all good but it’s going to end in tears so let’s knock it on the head. So we shook hands and he said, ‘No problem boss, all good.’”

This is when Symonds actually gave an insight into the happenings, where Brett Lee started bowling short and fast into Bhajji's ribs with Australia “trying to take him out” of the equation on a pitch that turned later. 

But, the turbanator decided to see the funny side of things. 

"I said, ‘Listen here d***head, we’re not out here to make friends, you’re about to get hurt here,’ And he started going, ‘You’re nothing but a monkey.’ He said it probably two or three times," Symonds said, "From that moment on that was my downhill slide."

While his teammates Matthew Hayden, Michael Clarke and Ricky Ponting came out in support during the law interference that followed, Symonds informed, “I started to drink heavily as a result of it and my life was starting to dissolve around me, I felt the pressure and the weight of dragging those mates of mine into the cauldron of this cesspit that should never have got to this sort of point where we felt guilty," before affirming, “Me and Punter (Ponting) were up one night before the Adelaide Test until one in the morning talking to our solicitor, so it was tricky times," 

“I was dealing with it the wrong way. I felt guilty that I’d dragged my mates into something I didn’t think they deserved to be involved in," he admitted, “I wasn’t particularly bothered on how he got punished, that was nearly irrelevant to me," and stressed, "I wasn’t thinking about that, I was thinking about what I was going through and what I’d put the other boys through. That (the punishment) was neither here nor there with me, it was the weight and responsibility of what we’d all been dragged into.”

The Symonds-Harbhajan rivalry was played out for a while in the media and the cricketing circle, before the Indian Premier League came along. Where the affable Singh “was perceived to be my worst enemy” but it, quite pleasingly, didn't go that way at all. 

"When I got to Mumbai it was icy, when I walked in there the first time," Symonds said, "We’d had a few drinks and Harbhajan came over to me. He said, ‘Boss can I talk to you for a minute?’, He said, ‘I really want to apologise for what I did and what I said, I hope it hasn’t harmed you or your family too badly,’ and he broke down," and signed off by saying, "I could just see the weight lift off his shoulders when he got that off his chest."

(Inputs from news.com.au)