‘They said you have testicles on your head, it was an insult towards my religion’ - Harbhajan Singh opens up on 'Monkeygate' scandal

Speaking in an interview, former Indian cricketer Harbhajan Singh opened up on the 'Monkey Gate' incident involving Andrew Symonds. The incident involving the two took place in a match in the Border-Gavaskar series in Sydney in 2008, when the controversy almost led to the tour being called off.

Harbhajan, who was charged with racial abuse, had retaliated with ‘something in Hindi, which was misunderstood as "monkey" by the Australians.

In a conversation with Boria Majumdar on 'Backstage with Boria', the Turbonator said, “Obviously I was disturbed, I couldn’t understand why it was happening. Why was there so much of... for something that hadn’t happened. They had six or seven witnesses for something that I had not spoken. No one had heard it and yet it was blown out of proportion.”

“The things that were said to me (while being) on the ground, ‘you have testicles on your head’, to hear such an insult towards my religion was the most difficult thing for me. I didn’t open my mouth then because if I did so, it would have resulted in more controversies,” he added.

Harbhajan was originally banned from three Test matches, but the punishment was reduced to a 50 percent match fees fine. He also had to sit out of the third match.

“Only I know how I spent time alone in my room during that difficult period. I didn’t try to talk much with the players or management. They were anyways backing me throughout the incident. I didn’t want to stress others with what I was going through. I had to deal with it in whatever way I could, and I am glad that I could and still go out there and play and win a few games for India in Australia,” he said.

Sachin Tendulkar revealed details of the incident in his autobiography

In his autobiography, 'Playing it my way', Sachin Tendulkar stated that the incident arose because Andrew Symonds had been continually trying to provoke Harbhajan. While trying to calm things down, Sachin heard Harbhajan saying 'Teri maa ki' (Your mother...).