Andrew Symonds opens up about ‘Monkeygate Scandal’, his relationship with Michael Clarke & IPL money

That incident weighed heavily on Symonds who opened up about it in a recent chat on The Brett Lee Podcast.

“I felt the burden and responsibility for the folks who backed me up, who said they heard what was said. In the previous tour in India, Harbhajan had called me a monkey there then. And I went straight after the game, called him out of the dressing room and spoke to him outside. I said boss the end of it. I said we got a few names for few of your boys and it will only get ugly. We shook hands,” Symonds said in the interaction.

“But when they (India) returned few months later to Australia for that New year’s Test, I remember Michael Clarke got the last wicket in the last over. It was the probably the greatest Test I had played.
This incident with myself and Harbhajan had happened earlier that day. We had won the Test in the last over; Unbelievable test, I hadn’t played anything like that,” he added.

He then talked about the aftermath of the incident, saying, “We literally had two beers and went right into meeting with match referee Mike Procter. The game finished at 5.30-600 pm.. We didn’t leave till 1am next morning. The celebrations were not only ruined and then all the lies … you know what I mean.”

Symonds then went on to explain how that incident affected him mentally.

“The stump microphone evidence disappeared. It was just one thing after another. That weighed heavily on me. I started drinking heavily. I had the Australian Captain Ricky Ponting backing me. Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden backed me. They were good friends and still are,” he said.

“I didn’t deal well with it. I thought we are going to win this. I remember the legal team saying why don’t we downgrade and try getting him on this charge? But why are we downgrading it for? We got five men who heard what Harbhajan said. Why should we downgrade charges. What is going on?,” he added.

“I remember we had a meeting with Ponting before next game and with solicitors. I remember telling Punter this isn’t going well, is it? That weighed heavily on me. Ricky [Ponting] would say Roy [Symonds] was never the same after that. He felt responsible for putting the boys through all that. I felt guilty I suppose of dragging all of them into that situation. It all started going downhill,” he concluded.

IPL money soured my relationship with Michael Clarke: Andrew Symonds

Symonds also opened up about that controversy involving Micheal Clarke and how their friendship took a bad hit during the time Clarke became Australian captain. Once, he sent Symonds back from a one-day series for skipping a team meeting and instead going to fishing.

Speaking on the podcast, Symonds said that their friendship went south when he got a good salary in the Indian Premier League. Symonds became the costliest foreign player when he was picked by Deccan Chargers for a sum of Rs 5.4 crore in 2008.

“I guess Money does funny things. It’s a good thing but it can be a poison and I reckon it may have poisoned our relationship. I’ve got enough respect for him to probably not go into detail about what was said. My friendship with him is no longer and I’m comfortable with that, but I’m not gonna sit here and start slinging mud,” he said.