The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : ‘Symonds broke pact with Harbhajan’

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‘Symonds broke pact with Harbhajan’

Canberra: It was Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds who started the racism row in Sydney by provoking Harbhajan Singh during the ill-tempered second cricket Test, Indian team manager Chetan Chauhan said on Thursday.

The former Test opener revealed that Symonds broke an agreement between the two players, which was reached in Mumbai during last year’s one-day series, and said it was the Australian who was responsible for the controversy.

“They had a pact in Mumbai after incidents during that series and the person who started the row was the one who broke the pact by reporting the incident,” Chauhan said.

He suggested that Symonds was not totally innocent in the whole controversy.

“He has admitted that he had said something to provoke Harbhajan. So there was a cause and an effect,” he said.

“We tried our best to scale down the controversy, but were told that the Australian players were adamant to press charges.”

One of the major sticking points from the Sydney Test were the contentious low catches and Chauhan said the issue was not part of the official memorandum of understanding between the teams.

“It was not part of the MoU between the sides but as both captains agreed, I went along with it even though I had some reservations. But we were assured that we will play according to the traditions and conventions of the game,” Chauhan said.

But incidents during the match have convinced the Indian team management to think again about trusting the fielders in the matter.

“Some catches and appeals in Sydney were unreasonable. We will think about it and have a re-look at the agreement,” he said.

“We were trying to make a comeback after the loss in Melbourne resulted in a criticism of our play and attitude. But we got the rough end of most decisions, otherwise the result would have been different,” Chauhan said. — PTI

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