The Monkeygate scandal is a well-known event in India’s cricket history. Former Indian cricketer Irfan Pathan was the part of the infamous incident which happened in 2007-2008 Test series against Australia at their home. Pathan reveals how things served for India in Australia after Harbhajan Singh’s verbal combat with Andrew Symonds.
The Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2007-2008 Test series became famous for all the wrong things. Umpire had given wrong decisions, and Adam Gilchrist was accused of poor sportsmanship during the series. It hogged the eyeball of everyone after Harbhajan was charged for passing racial remark to Andrew Symonds. The veteran spinner was banned for three-Test for calling Symond’s as Monkey. However, after Indian players protested against the decision and the ban was removed.
Recalling the whole event, Irfan Pathan reveals how Australian media played a major role in spreading negative things about the Indian players during the series. He said that a cameraman always followed Harbhajan Singh to notice each and every activity. Players were not allowed to step outside of the hotels. Pathan tagged the then captain Anil Kumble for handling the situation exceptionally well.
“Our media behaves well with our guests, but the Australian media is ruthless, they just talk about negatives things on the touring team, they make it feel like we are playing in fire. They got ‘Monkeygate scandal’ to cover at that time,” Pathan stated as quoted by Times Now.
“At least one cameraman will always be designated behind Harbhajan. But Kumble handled the situation very well, it was one of the hardest times for us, even our manager didn’t let us step outside our hotel just to stay away from media,” he added.
The Indian team after facing defeat in the SCG Test, amid all the controversies, bounced back in the Perth Test. Irfan Pathan, who was the man of the match in that Test, lauded India’s effort to attain victory after being surrounded by all the controversies. India lost that Test series by 1-2, with the last Test match ending in a draw.