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Harbhajan Singh never shied away from giving it back when egged on by opponent players and his rivalry with the Australian cricketers is a stuff of legends. Such was the impact of these on-field exchanges between the former off-spinner Harbhajan Singh and the Australians that the legendary former Australian opener Matthew Hayden even ended up calling the spinner an ‘obnoxious weed’ during an interview in 2008 which during that time stirred a massive controversy.

Fast forward to the era of Indian Premier League and it’s difficult to imagine the level of hostility that was once prevalent between the Indian and Australian cricketers. The extravagant T20 league brought together rivals of old as they played for the same outfit, trained, dined and spent significant time together forging lifetime friendships.

Harbhajan Singh poses for a photograph ahead of a practice session © AFP

Harbhajan Singh Admits IPL Has Changed The Dynamic Among Players

Harbhajan Singh, who retired recently from all forms of cricket, admits that IPL has changed the dynamics but said he has no qualms becoming foes with opponents in the process of trying to win matches for his country.

“…if trying to win matches for my country makes me a forever foe in the eyes of opponents then I am ready to become that, 200 times!” Harbhajan Singh said in an exclusive chat.

Shedding light on the state of the relationship before the IPL era, Harbhajan Singh revealed that there was a time when Indian and Australian cricketers didn’t even speak to each other, even in the hotel lobby.

“Yes, IPL has changed the dynamic among the players in many ways because we spend close to 45-50 days together which is a lot. You do become friends and forget a lot of bitterness from the past. Nowadays, the rivals are enemies only on the ground; but during our playing days, we didn’t even speak to the Australians even in the hotel lobby. Such was the kind of heated clashes we had on the field,” he said.

Harbhajan Singh was famous for his performance in Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2001 when the ace spinner picked 32 wickets in the series. In the same series, he also became the first Indian bowler to take a hat-trick in Test Cricket.

Harbhajan Singh, who took 711 wickets during his storied career spanning several years, may have gotten on the nerves of his opponents but the Australians did respect him for his craft that left many of them flummoxed, most famously the legendary Ricky Ponting, who has gone on record to admit he found the off-spinner was the most difficult bowler he faced.

“Ponting, Hayden are big players and when they say something about your game, it does feel nice. They won’t praise you for doing nothing. I must have done something special as a player. The Aussies used to be the boss team of our generation and it was always great to challenge and test yourself against the best,” Harbhajan said.

On the final day of the Sydney Test in 2008, then Australian captain Ricky Ponting complained to the umpires that Harbhajan Singh racially abused Andrew Symonds by calling him ‘Monkey’. The matter went into the courtroom.

The umpires were seen giving a warning to Harbhajan Singh for allegedly hurling racist comments at Andrew Symonds. The incident soon overshadowed the entire Test series as it became a major controversy in world cricket leading to Harbhajan Singh facing a ban for one Test. The incident almost led to the tour being called off.

The off-spinner finished his career with 417 Test wickets, 269 ODI wickets, and 25 T20I wickets. He was also a part of two World Cup-winning campaigns for India- in T20 World Cup 2007 and ODI World Cup 2011. The off-spinner loved to perform against Australia as he picked 95 wickets in 18 Tests against Australia including 7 fifers.

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