Former Indian cricketer Harbhajan Singh has revealed how he and Andrew Symonds patched up with each other over the ‘Monkeygate’ incident.
Both Harbhajan and Symonds were quite aggressive on the field. The duo engaged many times in on-field banters and verbal exchanges. One of the big incidents that broke out was in 2008, when Australia and India locked horns in the Sydney Test.
During that match, Symonds accused Harbhajan of calling him a ’monkey', which the off-spinner denied. The incident stole the limelight and it is still fresh in minds of many fans and pundits.
A few years, after the incident, both Harbhajan and Symonds shared a dressing room for Mumbai Indians (MI) in the IPL. The Australian was roped in by the franchise ahead of the IPL 2011.
Speaking to Sportskeeda, Harbhajan Singh recalled when he and Andrew Symonds hugged and apologised to each other. He said that it was at his friend’s place in Chandigarh where the duo sorted their issues and a lot of players from Mumbai Indians clicked pictures of that moment.
“I remembered an incident when we were in Chandigarh. After playing a match that we won, we went to my friend’s place. There, we hugged for the first time and apologized to each other. We felt that the issue could have been sorted out more amicably. Both of us felt sorry. A lot of my friends from Mumbai Indians clicked pictures of that moment," Harbhajan said.
Harbhajan revealed that when MI picked Symonds in their side in IPL 2011, he didn’t like that and felt that how will he go along with the Australian.
He said that when Symonds stepped inside the dressing room he was a different man altogether and after that, they both used to eat and sit together at night. He said they never felt that there was ‘animosity’ between them.
“When Mumbai picked him, the first thought that came to my mind was - ‘why did they pick him? How will we (me and Symonds) get along together?’ When he entered the MI dressing room, Andrew was a different man altogether. I thought he would some angry person and I feel he would have thought the same about me.
“In fact, we used to eat together and sit together at night. The controversy between me and Symonds was blown out of proportion by the media. When we met, we never felt that there was any such animosity between us,” he said.
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Harbhajan Singh said that when they started playing together, things changed and both of them put their past behind them and were only focused on taking MI forward in IPL.
“Everyone knows what used to happen when we were opponents on the cricket field. But things changed when he started playing together. We sat together, we spoke about things that had happened earlier. Ponting sat with me and discussed ways to take the team forward because I was also a senior member of the squad. We put behind our past and focused completely on taking Mumbai forward in the IPL," he said.
(Sportskeeda inputs)
