Anil Kumble Reveals How India Decided Against Pulling Out Of 2007/08 Australia Tour After Sydney Test Controversy

Former India captain Anil Kumble lead the Test team for just a year. He led India in 14 Tests, winning three, losing five and drawing the remaining six. But that short tenure was just enough for him to face one of the toughest time during his career. Anil Kumble started his tenure with a memorable a 1-0 series win over Pakistan before leading the side in Australia during the 2007-08 series that is famous for all the wrong reasons.

The series was marred by the monkeygate controversy as well as several poor umpiring decisions that went against India during the Sydney Test. Anil Kumble recently recalled the Australia tour and opened up on the tough decisions he had to make as skipper.

In the wake of the Sydney Test, the Indian team had protested and threatened to pull out of the tour. The match produced bitterness on both sides and an announcement by the Indian team that they would abandon their tour before the ICC made a dramatic intervention.

Recalling the tour, Anil Kumble said fans would have accepted India pulling out of the tour after all that happened during their 122-run loss to Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground.  Veteran spinner Harbhajan Singh was charged with racial abuse in an altercation with Andrew Symonds.

He was later banned by the match referee Mike Procter for three Test matches. Miffed with the turn of events, India denied the allegation and threatened to pull out of the series only to withdraw the threat later. Later, Harbhajan’s charges were downgraded to the lesser charge of using abusive language and the ban was lifted.

Anil Kumble opens up on the Sydney Test:

Speaking to off-spinner R Ashwin on his YouTube show DRS with Ash, the legendary leg-spinner conceded it was tough for India after the Sydney Test defeat but he and the senior members of the team decided to continue with the tour and try to win the remaining matches.

“As a captain, I thought the best result coming out of Sydney could have been a draw after all that that had happened. Unfortunately we lost. With 5 minutes to go, nobody expected a Michael Clarke to come and pick up 3 wickets in the final stages and win the game for Australia,” Anil Kumble said.

“After all of that, as a captain, you’re generally tuned to take decisions on the field. Here I was faced with something which was off the field. To take a decision, in the larger interest of the game. And one of our players was obviously banned for 3 matches because of a racist remark. That was what the pronouncement was. But we appealed.

“I believed that our player was wronged and we had to be together as a team. But the challenge was there was a lot of talk about the team wanting to come back at that point in time and leave the tour and come back.

“Yes, probably, if that had happened, people would have accepted. Maybe, the Indian team was wronged and that’s why they came back but I think, as a captain, or as a team, we had gone there to win the series. Unfortunately, with the first 2 results not going our way, the best result could have been a drawn series because 2 more Tests remained.

“I just wanted to rally around the team. I was fortunate enough to have senior players, former captains in the team and all of them, we got around as a unit, we addressed in a room where only the team was there and we took a decision to continue and make sure and we go on and win the next couple of matches because that would be the best message we can give back to our fans,” he added.

India had gone on to register a memorable win in the third Test in Perth after an inspired performance. The fourth match ended in draw as Australia won the four-match series 2-1.

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