Former Indian cricketer Harbhajan Singh’s love-hate relationship with Australia‘s Andre Symonds in known to everyone. During the 2nd Test in Sydney of the 2007 tour, Harbhajan was accused by Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds of racially insulting him and calling him a monkey.
The event that unfolded in the next few days were not good for both Indian and Australian cricket. Harbhajan Singh was handed a three-match ban but was later revoked.
Meanwhile, three years since then, Harbhajan and Andrew Sumonds were teammates at Mumbai Indians in IPL 2008. The 41-year-old said e said was quite astonishing to him at the start, but later on, things got better between the two and the duo hugged and apologised to each other for what happened in the past.
Speaking on Sportskeeda, Harbhajan Singh said:
“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? ” However, he asserted, “When he entered the MI dressing room, Andrew was a different man altogether. I thought he would be an angry person, and I feel he would have thought the same about me.”
He added:
“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 apologised to each other. We felt that the issue could have been sorted out in a more amicable manner. Both of us felt sorry. A lot of my friends from Mumbai Indians clicked pictures of that moment.”
“The controversy between me and Symonds was blown out of proportion” – Harbhajan Singh
The cricketer-turned-commentator said that during Andrew’s time with the Mumbai Indians, the duo started meeting and interacting more often during the practice sessions.
Harbhajan Singh concluded:
“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.”
