Plain Bhajji On The Pitch

Australia's The Courier-Mail puts out a funkier take on Symonds

Looking back, the series had progressed without incident—in that there were no visible signs of sledging—till India's batsmen started pulling their weight and took the team past the home side's first innings total in Sydney. Off-spinner Harbhajan Singh was in the thick of an Indian revival, helping Sachin Tendulkar in a splendid rearguard action, when Australia seized a moment and swung world attention away from the contest.

If you saw Harbhajan's 'pat on the posterior' to paceman Brett Lee while returning to the crease, you would hardly have expected things to spiral into such a furore. Andrew Symonds, though, had different ideas and apparently passed a very personal comment. That was enough for the Indian offspinner, never one to mince words, to jump into the battle of words. Symonds told match referee Mike Procter during the hearing, "I'm a firm believer in sticking up for your teammate, so I stepped in and had a bit of a crack at Harbhajan, telling him exactly what I thought of his antics. He then had a shot back, which brings us to the situation we're facing."