Famous modern day India-Australia controversies

#1 Monkeygate, 2008 Sydney

Harbhajan Singh was accused of racially abusing Andrew Symonds

It was the mother of all controversies involving the two cricketing giants. The stage for this drama was the famous Sydney Cricket Ground.

The match was marred by questionable umpiring decisions which had a definite impact on the result. Australia eventually went on to win the match by 122 runs.

Such was the impact of the umpiring decisions that the Indian team had threatened to abandon the tour. ICC then intervened and umpire, Steve Bucknor, whose decisions were termed as controversial, was dropped from officiating in the third Test.

The other controversy in this match involved two players who were never shy with respect to showing emotions on the field – Andrew Symonds and Harbhajan Singh. The Indian off-spinner was accused of racially abusing Symonds, a charge which Harbhajan denied.

According to Tendulkar, Harbhajan had only said “Teri Maa Ki” (your mother) to Symonds, who instead believed that the spinner had called him a monkey. Indian captain Anil Kumble had famously said after the match, “Only one team was playing with the spirit of the game, that's all I can say".

Criticising the turn of events, even commentator Harsha Bhogle had said; “Australia won! But did they deserve it?”

Steve Waugh put it perfectly when he said, “It's a real pity this magnificent Test match will probably be remembered for all the wrong reasons – and not for the outstanding quality, pressure and the excruciating drama it ultimately provided.

Cricket was indeed the loser in Sydney in that match.