The world cricket community woke up on Sunday morning to the shocking news of Australian icon Andrew Symonds' sudden death in a car crash. The powerful, towering cricketer was among the foremost all-rounder in the game at his peak. However, one infamous controversy involving the enigmatic cricket had a much greater impact on him that any other moments of this remarkable career. The ‘Monkeygate scandal’ was one of the darkest episodes in cricketing history. It affected all its stakeholder, most of all Symonds. He recently opened about the incident and how it affected him mentally.
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In short, Monkeygate was cricket’s most usual and bizarre and infamous racism scandal that occurred during the famous 2008 Sydney Test between India and Australia. In a verbal confrontation with Indian spinning great Harbhajan Singh, Andrew Symonds allegedly faced racial abuse. In the altercation, Singh mouthed the words 'Teri Maa Ki' which were heard by Symonds as ‘monkey’ as racial slur. The Indian spinner was sanctioned by the ICC. However, the ban was overturned after it was clarified by Sachin Tendulkar, who was batting on the other end, that Singh had not uttered the alleged racial slur.
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In a chat with fellow former Australian cricketer Brett Lee on a podcast hosted by him called The Brett Lee Podcast, Symonds shed light on the incident, its aftermath and how the saga affected him mentally.
He talked about how it affected him and led to his bout with heavy drinking. How the "stump microphone evidence disappeared and “just one thing after another” weighed heavily down on him that the all-rounder started drinking heavily.
He said that he carried the “burden and responsibility” for the people who had backed his side of the story, naming then Australian Captain Ricky Ponting, wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist and opener Matthew Hayden and going on to say they “were good friends and still are”.
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Symonds also said that he had confronted Harbhajan Singh in the dressing room after the game, calling to end it as it would “only get ugly”. They then shook hands, he revealed.
He went on to say how he did not deal with the incident well, confident of winning the legal battle. He revealed how Ponting would say that Symonds was never the same after the incident. Symonds opened up on how he felt guilt for dragging his friends into a situation when things started to spiral downwards. The Australian all-rounder’s international career came to an end a year after the incident in 2009.
