Andrew Symonds didnât want to participate in IPL because of monkeygate incident, reveals Neil Maxwell
Neil Maxwell has revealed that back in 2008, Andrew Symonds did not want to participate in the Indian Premier League because of the infamous feud between him and Harbhajan Singh. He also stated how he had to work out with the Australian national team to find a common ground between players and IPL.
Back in 2008, shortly after the series between India and Australia Down Under, the relationship between the two countries were not at their best. It all broke down to the âMonkeygateâ incident in the 2008 Test series, which left Andrew Symonds and Harbhajan Singh in a spot of bother. Incidentally, that year was also scheduled to be the first season of BCCIâs newly promoted tournament, Indian Premier League.
So when the names for the first draft was jotted down, Symonds did not want himself part of the tournament, according to former CEO of Kings XI Punjab, Neil Maxwell. On top of that, Maxwell also admitted that how the all-rounder was quick to decline the opportunity of participating in the tournament.Â
âLalit Modi asked me to convince the Australian players and the New Zealand players that they needed to come to the IPL, and not go to the ICL or, in Andrew Symondsâ case, not go at all. He didnât want to go at all, because he had that blowout with Harbhajan,â Maxwell said on The Top Order podcast.Â
The former Fijian cricketer also revealed how he had to convince the bunch of Australian players to get them to participate in the cash-rich tournament. While the cash opportunity was indeed lucrative, the former Australian star still was hesitant to put himself into the Auctions list. However, Maxwell recalled that Symonds eventually agreed, reluctantly before fetching himself a 1.2 million dollar IPL contract with the Deccan Chargers.Â
âSo I had to work the Australian cricket team. I was working them all. I remember weâre putting contracts in front of them, and there was going to be a minimum amount, they were going to this thing called the auction. So Andrew Symonds was going to get 200,000 USD minimum [$US 250,000]. And that was about an Australian Cricket contract [for a whole year] â he was on about 300, letâs say.â
âAnyway, he reluctantly agreed, and 48 hours later, he had 1.2 million [$1.35m] a year for three years as a contract. You talk about transformation, that was transformation as they introduced the auction.â