Former Australian skipper, Ricky Ponting considers the 2008 ‘Monkeygate’ scandal the lowest point of his captaincy career. He reckons that he was not in control of the things that were happened at that time. The scandal rose when the veteran Indian spinner, Harbhajan Singh was charged with racially abusing Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds during the second Test at Sydney.
During a podcast on Skysports, Ponting said, “Monkeygate was probably the lowest (point in a career as captain). Losing the 2005 Ashes series was tough but I was in full control of that. But I wasn’t in full control of what happened during the Monkeygate thing.”
Harbhajan was eventually cleared of the charge and Symonds’ career went into a downward spiral after the incident.
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Recalling the same, Ricky said, “It was a low point and also because it dragged on for so long. I remember coming off the ground during the Adelaide Test match and speaking to Cricket Australia officials about the case because the hearing was at the end of the Adelaide Test match.”
The incident created a lot of bitterness between the two teams as the visitors India threatening to pull out of the tour before the ICC intervened.
Talking about the same, Ponting said, “We all felt let down by the end result (of the Monkeygate controversy). The fact that it got in the way of the way we played our cricket for the next Test match was probably the most disappointing thing. So we go over there and India at Perth is a game we expect to win and then we lost the match and after that the next few days things just got worse and worse. Under Ponting’s captaincy, Australia also suffered Ashes defeats in 2005, 2009 and 2010-11.”
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He further added, “Everyone in 2005 expected us to just come over here, whitewash them [England] again and come back with the Ashes. That didn’t happen that way. Certainly, for me, the 2005 defeat was the hardest to cope with. But 2010-11, we were just completely outplayed.”
