Ricky Ponting and Sachin Tendulkar. Source: DIBYANGSHU SARKAR / AFP
AS millions of besotted cricket fans prepare to farewell Sachin Tendulkar in his 200th Test next month Ricky Ponting has questioned the Indian demigod's central role in exacerbating the Andrew Symonds Monkeygate scandal.
Writing candidly in his autobiography The Close of Play, Ponting has said publicly what many Australian players have uttered privately since the 2007-08 summer was torn asunder.
Harbhajan Singh was charged with racial abuse for calling Andrew Symonds a monkey during the Sydney Test, creating a furore unprecedented since bodyline.
The Indian spinner was suspended for three Tests by match referee Mike Procter only to be cleared on appeal when Tendulkar changed his story.
Justice John Hansen from New Zealand heard the appeal and saw Tendulkar as a key witness.
Ponting was dismayed by Justice Hansen's decision, which stated: 'Contrary to reports Tendulkar heard nothing, he told me he heard a heated exchange and wished to calm Mr Singh down. His evidence was that there was swearing between the two.
Australian cricketers (l-r) Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke, Andrew Symonds and Matthew Hayden at Harbhajan Singh's appeal against his three match ban.
`It was initiated by Mr Symonds. That he did not hear the word 'monkey' or 'big monkey', but he did say he heard Mr Singh use a term in his native tongue 'teri maki' which appears to be pronounced with an 'n'. He said this is a term that sounds like 'monkey' and could be misinterpreted for it.'
Ponting was taken aback by Tendulkar's sudden recollections.
"I couldn't understand why Sachin didn't tell this to (match referee) Mike Procter in the first place," Ponting wrote.
Adam Gilchrist took a similar view in his book five years ago after he retired at the end of that tumultuous summer, claiming Tendulkar's change of story for the appeal was a "joke".
"Tendulkar, who'd said at the first hearing that he hadn't been able to hear what Harbhajan had said - and he was a fair way away, up the other end, so I'm certain he was telling the truth - now supported Harbhajan's version that he hadn't called Symo a 'monkey' but instead a Hindi term of abuse that might sound like 'monkey' to Australian ears," Gilchrist said.
India's Harbhajan Singh at the appeal against his three-match ban imposed by the ICC for allegedly racially taunting Australia's Andrew Symonds.
"The Indians got him off the hook when they, of all people, should have been treating the matter of racial vilification with the utmost seriousness."
Ponting described fining Harbhajan half his match his match fee for abuse as "absurd."
"Owing to an administrative error, the judge was never told about any of Harbhajan's past offences, which meant the penalty was way less than what it should have been," Ponting wrote.
"As I pondered this result over the weeks and months that followed, I started to think that I needed to be more savvy about the off-field politics.
"Maybe the Indian cricket juggernaut of the 21st century is too influential to shake. But then I thought about the way a number of people in the game had questioned our motives; how they thought we were just seeking an advantage rather than acting on principle.
"It was much more serious than that. When Darren Lehmann was suspended for a racist comment in the lead-up to the 2003 World Cup, we were criticised as a group for not seeing the seriousness in what Boof had done.
"Five years later, the roles were reversed. I felt that there was a lot of hypocrisy about the 'Monkeygate' scandal."
The Sydney Test had been a record-equalling 16th consecutive victory after India dramatically collapsed to lose a Test they looked likely to draw but celebrations were cut short by Harbhajan's racial vilification hearing.
"Mike Procter heard all the evidence and found Harbhajan guilty. The next day, the Indians responded by threatening to go home," Ponting wrote.
"Because (captain Anil) Kumble's uncontested line about 'Australia playing outside the spirit of the game' received so much attention, quickly the belief spread that it was us, not Procter's judgement, that provoked the trouble."
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