Ricky Ponting acted like an umpire himself, says Harbhajan Singh while recalling 2008 SCG Test
Veteran Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh spoke about the infamous 2008 SCG Test on a chat show on fellow former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra's Youtube channel.
Harbhajan Singh revealed that the then Australian skipper Ricky Ponting was then acting like an umpire and was giving decisions himself. The SCG Test is remembered for two reasons, one for the umpiring howlers that cost India the game, and two for the ugly spat between Harbhajan Singh and Andrew Symonds which is also known as the 'MonkeyGate'.
"When I talk about the 2008 Test against Australia in Sydney, I think in that match, Ricky Ponting was the umpire himself, he was claiming catches and then was pronouncing the verdict, Australians say what happens on the ground should stay on the ground, but the incident that happened between me and Symonds went beyond the ground," Harbhajan Singh said.
There was a much-debated catch off Sourav Ganguly's outside edge taken by Michael Clarke in which the replays showed that the ball might have touched the ground. However, umpire Mark Benson gave Ganguly out only because Ponting gestured that the catch had been taken to the umpire. On-air commentator Sunil Gavaskar's anger said it all.
I was engulfed in a conspiracy: Harbhajan Singh
The MonkeyGate proved to be very costly for Harbhajan Singh as he was banned for three games. But the ban was later withdrawn after BCCI protested that Harbhajan Singh did not make any racist remarks about Andrew Symonds.
Harbhajan Singh claimed that he was made a scapegoat of the conspiracy as nobody knew exactly what he had spoken to Symonds.
"Me and Symonds were very close to each other, only Tendulkar was close to us, there was no one else close to us, when the hearing started, Matthew Hayden, Adam Gilchrist, Michael Clarke and Ricky Ponting, all these four said that they heard what Bhajji said to Symonds. I was engulfed in a conspiracy, there was an enquiry and I was very scared as to what was happening with me. Australian media made me Michael Jackson, I was being constantly chased by cameras," Harbhajan Singh stated.
