Symonds shouldn’t have escalated Monkeygate: Clarke

[kira]

Quote

 

Michael Clarke, the former Australia captain, said that he felt Andrew Symonds could have stopped the infamous ‘Monkeygate’ incident from blowing up the way it did in January 2008 if he had not escalated things.

Clarke, who was one of the key witnesses in the case from Australia’s side after an acrimonious Sydney Test with India, was then a close friend of Symonds. He was speaking at the launch of his book in Kolkata on Tuesday (March 14). “I was very close to Andrew at the time. I asked him if he was racially vilified. It wasn’t about being racially abused for Andrew but a lot of other things,” recalled Clarke. “Now it’s not the right time to discuss those things. But I didn’t think he (Symonds) should have continued with that (incident). It should have ended right there.

“I had mentioned it to Symonds that if he didn’t feel really, really offended and if he felt he could overcome it, he shouldn’t escalate it further. However, Symmo and some of the other players had different views and it became what it became,” added Clarke.

The fallout from the incident eventually led to Symonds being disillusioned by the perceived lack of support from Cricket Australia, with the Board of Control for Cricket in India reportedly ready to cancel the tour midway and fly back home after Symonds had levelled a racism charge against Harbhajan Singh.

The acrimony from nine years back was revisited when the same opponents played in another heated Test match, with Virat Kohli, the Indian captain, stopping barely short of calling his counterpart Steven Smith a cheat after India had won by 75 runs in Bangalore to level a four-match series 1-1.

“If what Steven Smith did wasn’t a first or a brain fade as he says, it was unacceptable,” contended Clarke about his successor’s look to the dressing room to seek help on whether to review an lbw decision against him – which sparked Kohli’s angry words. “And I’ve still not heard from the on-field umpires or the match referee as to whether Virat did mention the matter to the umpires before the Smith incident. I’m keen to know more about it, especially if the Indians had raised it already.”

The BCCI and CA eventually called a truce to the matter, agreeing that it was in the best interests of all concerned if the focus would stay on cricket in what has been a hard, and well-fought series.

The third Test will start in Ranchi on Thursday.

 

Clarke has certainly become more sensible and likable since his retirement. Symonds was an idiot back then, he tried to ruin the career of a cricketer just cause he couldn't handle the sledge when he was at the receiving end, glad that his career ended the way it did  

[Hercules]

I had completely forgetten the name of that person who called Symonds a monkey! - looks like Clarke has too!

[Gollum]

He will change his tune once he leaves India. Best to ignore him here. Don't forget Clarke's past and his cheating ways against us.

[rkt.india]

26 minutes ago, Hercules said:

I had completely forgetten the name of that person who called Symonds a monkey! - looks like Clarke has too!

He didn't even say monkey. It is highly unlikely. It was probably a hindi slang that sounded like monkey. The slang is "teri Maa ki."

[Hercules]

A way to test if it should be seen as a racist comment would be for someone to call Virat a monkey on field and see if his head explodes!

[Hercules]

Or call him something that very much sounds like monkey!

[Rightarmfast]

The truth is, Indians, and especially someone like Harbhajan, who hasnt studied in a posh english medium school, are not aware of all these racially provocative words. For us, calling someone like' Tere maa ki' is worse than calling someone a chinki or a monkey. Harbhajan wouldnt even know that monkey would be considered an abuse. The fact is clearly, Harbhajan would have called him ' Teri Maa ki'

[nevada]

Symonds was used and thrown out. The Aussies hurl abuse which is way worse than calling someone a monkey. McGrath once said to Sarwan "how does his ***** taste pointing to Lara. Sarwan replied why dont you ask your wife. And McGrath got real mad and threatened Sarwan. I dont remember any drama about McGrath being a homophobe back then. Why did the Aussies make a bug deal of the word monkey? I dont get it. Aussies are the worst hypocrites. They act like bullies but run to into the referees arms like scared little kids if the opposition answers back with sledging. 

[BeautifulGame]

7 hours ago, Hercules said:

Or call him something that very much sounds like monkey!

No one in India will get offended when called a monkey though.Infact its a generally used banter word between friends .

 

That cultural difference was probably the biggest reason for the whole mess.