As at Melbourne, where India had slumped to a massive defeat in the only Twenty20 game, Harbhajan was brutally barracked when he walked out to bat. Harbhajan, playing deaf, went on to smash 27 runs off 19 balls.
When Australia batted, each time the ball went to Harbhajan, each time he appeared on the giant screen, he was greeted with hisses, jeers and calls to go back. Gullets liberally lubricated by beer, Australian fans chanted, "You are a wanker (one who masturbates)!"Interviewing a spectator who’s high on beer and excitement is not easy, especially with waves of deafening noise rocking the stands, but Outlook managed to talk to a few. "Andrew is a Brissie boy," said a youth from Gold Coast, carrying a ‘Go Bananas, Roy’ banner. "He’s a good bloke, and Harbhajan should have known better than to call him a monkey!"
In the middle, Harbhajan, perhaps not aware of the implications of the insults hurled at him, acted as if he could not hear, cupping his ear with his hand and asking for more. And he did get more, but only seemed amused.
Andy Tallis, more sober than most fans, said that the Australian fan often comes to the ground to have fun, picks a target and harasses him. "This has happened to the very best cricketers and rugby players on this ground," he said. "And the crowd here is fiercely anti-Bhajji because Symonds plays here."
Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni later laughed it off, saying that Harbhajan was a "lone wolf". "He was encouraging the whole stadium to respond in a big way," he said. "He just raised his hand to his ears and they (crowd) were all singing and dancing—it was perfect." Bhajji, it seems, is a marked man, and he is likely to be booed through the ODI series.
