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5 of the worst fights from past India-Australia clashes

The ‘Monkey-gate’ scandal left a sour taste for fans worldwide

With India’s home series against Australia about a week away, the hype has already taken centre-stage for the four-match Test series. Both teams, over the years, have been a part of some riveting contests on the 22 yards.

While straining every sinew to outplay each other, the teams don’t back off from glaring vigorously at each other or intensifying the atmosphere through some animated altercations.

Australia has always tended to get under the skins of their rivals and has tried to take an upper hand in the series even before its commencement by playing their infamous mind games. As we move towards the first Test on the 23rd of February, we look back at some of the biggest fights in the history of India versus Australia contests. 


#5 The Monkey-gate saga

It was a day which stirred the cricketing fraternity with one of the ugliest spat between the two cricketing giants. The second Test of India’s 2007-08 tour of Australia in Sydney had several facets etched into it other than just cricket.

Harbhajan Singh was alleged of racially abusing Andrew Symonds by addressing him as a monkey, which didn’t go down well with the Kangaroos. It was followed by an array of incidents that included handing the off-spinner a ban of three matches and the Indian team’s protest of boycotting the tour if the ban wasn’t lifted.

In his autobiography launch Playing It My Way, Sachin Tendulkar revealed the Indian team’s decision to boycott the tour if the Indian off spinner was banned. Former Australian wicketkeeper-batsman Adam Gilchrist accused the ‘Little Master’ of not sticking to his comments on his role during the event and it made things turn for the worse. The ban was eventually lifted and the series went smoothly thereafter.  

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