Feelings of Guilt Over Teammates Being Dragged in to 'Monkeygate' Led Him to Abuse Alcohol - Andrew Symonds

Former Australia cricketer Andrew Symonds recently revealed that his life went away from the track after the infamous ‘Monkeygate’ incident during India’s tour of Australia in 2007-08.

Meanwhile, the incident took place on day three of the second Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Harbhajan Singh was batting with Sachin Tendulkar when Harbhajan and Andrew Symonds had a verbal altercation. Then the Australian alleged his opponent called him a monkey.

“I said, ‘Listen here d***head, we’re not out here to make friends, you’re about to get hurt here‘,” Symonds told Howard in is podcast The Howie Games. “And he [Harbhajan] started going: ‘You’re nothing but a monkey.’ He said it probably two or three times. From that moment on that was my downhill slide,” he added.

Furthermore, several teammates heard Harbhajan Singh call Symonds a monkey. This prompted skipper Ricky Ponting to lodge an official complaint. ICC called four members of the team — Ponting, Symonds, Matthew Hayden, and Michael Clarke to give evidence of the incident.

The case brought immense media scrutiny for everyone involved, and Andrew Symonds said his guilt over the way the process played out had hung over him.

“I started to drink heavily as a result of it and my life was starting to dissolve around me,” Symonds said. “I felt the pressure and the weight of dragging those mates of mine into the cauldron of this cesspit that should never have got to this sort of point where we felt guilty. Me and Punter [Ponting] were up one night before the Adelaide Test until one in the morning talking to our solicitor, so it was tricky times. I was dealing with it the wrong way. I felt guilty that I’d dragged my mates into something I didn’t think they deserved to be involved in,” he concluded.