Andrew Symonds Harbhajan Singh Monkeygate: After Shane Warne, the cricket world has now lost former Australian legendary cricketer Andrew Symonds. Symonds died in a road accident on Saturday night. Symonds played cricket for Australia between 1998 and 2009, one of his controversies in his career has always been the most discussed. The fight between Harbhajan Singh and Symonds in 2007-08 was one of the biggest controversies in cricket history.

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2007-08 Monkeygate controversy

Team India toured Australia in 2007-08. The second match of the series was being played on the Sydney ground. Very poor umpiring was seen in this match. During this match, when Harbhajan Singh was batting and Bhajji had an argument with Andrew Symonds, after which the captain Ricky Ponting got furious and complained against Harbhajan to the umpire.

Ponting had crossed the limit because he had made serious allegations of racism not sledging on Bhajji. He had said that Harbhajan called Symonds a 'monkey' on the field.

Making racial remarks a big allegation

According to the rules of the ICC, making racial remarks is a big allegation. Any kind of racial remark is considered a 'level three' offense. In this, the player can be banned for two to four Tests. After the end of the day's play, the hearing went on till midnight and Harbhajan was convicted for three matches. Australia won this match, but the real controversy started after that. The entire Indian team and captain Anil Kumble was supporting Harbhajan in this controversy. And he made it clear that he would not play the next match until the allegations of racist remarks against Bhajji were dropped.

Seeing the controversy growing in the case, the ICC handed over its hearing to New Zealand Judge John Hanson. Judge John Hanson, after the completion of the hearing of the case, termed all allegations against Bhajji as baseless and said that 'Harbhajan did not call Symonds 'monkey' but 'your mother's'. For this reason this dispute is called the Monkeygate controversy.

Symonds cricket career

Andrew Symonds' name comes in the world's greatest all-rounders. Andrew Symonds played 26 Tests, 198 ODIs and 14 T20 matches for Australia. He scored 1462 runs in ODIs, 5088 runs in Tests and 337 runs in T20s. Andrew Symonds also played 39 IPL matches. In IPL, he scored 974 runs at an average of 36. Symonds was part of the Australian team that won the ODI World Cup in 2003 and 2007.