Ricky Ponting behaved like umpire in 2008 Sydney Test, claims Harbhajan Singh

After being handed a thrashing in the first Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in the 2007/08 Border-Gavaskar Trophy, the Indian team, led by Anil Kumble, went to Sydney to prove a point. However, in the second Test, Australia won the toss and batted first and ensured that it was a long outing for the Indian bowlers, scoring a mammoth 463 in the first innings.

In response, when the Kumble-led side were reduced to 345/7, in pursuit of 463, Harbhajan Singh then played an incredible inning, helping India snatch a 69-run lead. 

However, all efforts went down the drain in the second innings, when the match completely turned in Australia’s favour, thanks to a plethora of umpiring errors - many from Steve Bucknor. One controversial decision of the lot was Sourav Ganguly's dismissal, where Aussie skipper Ricky Ponting signalled to the umpires that Michael Clarke caught the ball, despite the ball clearly bouncing. Flabbergastingly, the umpires did take Ponting's word and adjudged Ganguly out, leaving the Indians infuriated. Recalling the Test match, Harbhajan claimed that the Australian skipper was pronouncing the verdict like an umpire during the infamous Test. 

"When I talk about the 2008 Test against Australia in Sydney, I think in that match, Ricky Ponting was the umpire himself, he was claiming catches and then was pronouncing the verdict, Australians say what happens on the ground should stay on the ground, but the incident that happened between me and Symonds went beyond the ground," Harbhajan said on the official YouTube channel of Aakash Chopra.

The off-spinner also went on to talk about the ‘Monkeygate’ incident with Andrew Symonds, where he allegedly hurled a racial slur at the latter. This incident went on to become one of the talking points of the Test match, which Harbhajan claims none of the Australian players apart from Symonds knew about, with them being far away from both himself and Symonds. However, when it came to the trial, the off-spinner alleged that all the four Aussie players - Ponting, Matthew Hayden, Michael Clarke and Adam Gilchrist - said they heard everything that the Jalandhar spinner had said. 

"Me and Symonds were very close to each other, only Tendulkar was close to us, there was no one else close to us, when the hearing started, Matthew Hayden, Adam Gilchrist, Michael Clarke and Ricky Ponting, all these four said that they heard what Bhajji said to Symonds," Harbhajan said.