Veteran Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh "broke down crying" while apologising in wake of the controversial monkeygate incident during the infamous Sydney Test in 2008, revealed ex-Australian middle-order batsman Andrew Symonds.
A decade later Symonds has claimed that the turbanator felt and expressed sorry afterwards for calling the right-hander "monkey" which is considered a serious racial abuse breaching the apt code of conduct expected from players at the International level.
The relationship improved, as per Symonds, when the duo turned up for Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League.
"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 told Fox Sports, "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 just 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'."
Symonds, who has previously reflected on how the incident did a lot of damage to him mentally and how his life went downhill after the whole narrative, further said, "I suppose this would be the moment where my whole persona to cricket changed. I didn't realise how powerful one player, one incident, how much money was at stake and the ramifications."
While his teammates Matthew Hayden, Michael Clarke and Ricky Ponting came out in support during the law interference that followed, the 43-year-old, who played 26 Tests and 198 ODIs, 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."
"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."
