Ricky Ponting kicks up another storm by making revelations on Monkeygate controversy
Ricky Ponting kicks up another storm by making revelations on Monkeygate controversy
MELBOURNE: Ricky Ponting is all set to kick up a fresh storm with claims that a senior member of the Indian team asked him to drop the charges of racial abuse against Harbhajan Singh during the bitter Sydney Test row earlier this year. “On the night after we made our on-field report about Harbhajan, I had a phone conversation with a senior member of the Indian touring party, who asked me straight to drop the complaint,” Ponting reveals in his just-released book ‘Captain’s Diary 2008’, extracts of which came out in The Australian on Saturday.
Ponting, without revealing the name, goes on to say that the senior Indian cricketer tried convincing him about the futility of pursuing the long legal battle that would come with pressing such a serious charge. “Why do we need to keep it quiet?” I asked. “His reply had nothing to do with Harbhajan’s guilt or innocence; this fellow was more concerned with how events were going to transpire and tried to convince me it might not be worth the stress of going ahead with what might well be a prolonged legal process.”
Ponting alleges that once he ignored the call, he witnessed heightened activity in the Indian camp to get the charges downgraded. The Indians had threatened to pull out of the tour. “I was determined to see that justice would be done, but I knew from the moment that the investigation might not be straightforward,” he said.
“It would not look good for Indian cricket for one of their senior players to be convicted of racial abuse, and from the time their officials realised we were not going to give ground — which was probably the moment this brief conversation ended - they set out to make sure that did not happen,” he added.
Ponting rued the ugly episode ended up taking the sheen off the Australian team’s record-equalling 16th straight Test win. “One of the great frustrations of this affair was that the quality of our victory in this Sydney Test, and the excitement it generated, was largely lost in the angst.”
Ponting disputed the then skipper Anil Kumble’s remarks that only the visiting side played the game in the right spirit. “His comments were met with rousing cheers by the Indian press corps. No one, Indian or Australian, challenged his view. They had their story,” he added.
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