Andrew Symonds' heartbreaking admission about 'monkeygate' saga

Andrew Symonds has opened up about his infamous run-in with Harbhajan Singh in 2008.

Symonds was in the field during the fifth Test at the SCG when Harbhajan allegedly called him a ‘monkey’.

The Indian spinner was initially handed a three-match ban from the ICC, which was later overturned on appeal.

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Speaking to Mark Howard in an episode of his podcast The Howie Games, Symonds has made the heartbreaking revelation that he doesn’t feel sorry for himself over the nasty incident, but more for the teammates he ‘dragged in’.

“I’d spoken to Harbhajan the series before in India, he’d called me a monkey before in India,” Symonds said.

“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.

“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.'”

But it wasn’t all good, and Harbhajan left Symonds fuming in Sydney.

“I said, ‘Listen here d***head, we’re not out here to make friends, you’re about to get hurt here,'” Symonds said. “And he started going, ‘You’re nothing but a monkey.’

“He said it probably two or three times. From that moment on that was my downhill slide.”

Teammates Matthew Hayden, Michael Clarke and Adam Gilchrist all heard Singh call Symonds a “monkey”, which prompted captain Ricky Ponting to make an official complaint.

Symonds, Hayden, Clarke and Ponting were all called before the ICC to allege what had happened, leaving Symonds gutted that his mates had suffered through the saga with him.

“I started to drink heavily as a result of it and my life was starting to dissolve around me,” Symonds said.

“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.

“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.

“I wasn’t particularly bothered on how he got punished, that was nearly irrelevant to me. 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.”

Symonds said his cricket and personal life suffered in the aftermath, brought on when he started to drink excessively.

Cricket Australia banned him from drinking ahead of the World T20 in 2009, but he broke his contract while watching a State of Origin match and never played for Australia again.

He continued his career in the IPL, where he was actually teammates with Harbhajan.

“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.

“I could just see the weight lift off his shoulders when he got that off his chest.”