Anil Kumble reveals why India decided against pulling out of 2008 Australia tour

The 2007-08 India’s tour of Australia was a particularly controversial one. The Indian and Australian had been at loggerheads repeatedly all through the collection with a number of contentious umpiring selections including gas to the hearth. Then the notorious Sydney Test of January 2008 occurred which even gave the chance of derailment of the entire collection. It had the Monkeygate scandal the place off-spinner Harbhajan Singh was handed a three-match ban by the ICC for allegedly racially abusing Australia all-rounder Andrew Symonds.

The discuss of Indian group pulling out of the 2007-08 Australia Tour began dominating the headlines. But India captain Anil Kumble decided against the choice. India finally appealed against the choice and Harbhajan was finally let off with a positive of 50 per cent of his match charges by New Zealand High Court decide John Hansen.

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Kumble revealed in a dialog with R Ashwin that pulling out of the 2007-08 Australia Tour following the controversial Sydney Test might have been an “acceptable” choice however his aspect continued the collection to set an instance by successful the remaining matches in attempting circumstances.

“You know as a captain you’re generally tuned to take decisions on the field. Here I was faced with something, which was off the field, to take a decision in the larger interest of the game,” the legendary spinner informed R Ashwin in his Youtube present ‘DRS with Ash’.

The 49-year-old Kumble, the nation’s highest Test wicket-taker with 619 scalps from 132 matches, additionally made it clear that he felt Harbhajan was “wronged” by the choice of the ICC.

“We had to obviously be together as a team but the challenge was that there was a lot of talk about the team wanting to come back at that point in time, and leave the tour and come back. Yes, you know, probably (people) would have accepted that the Indian team was wronged and that’s why they came back.”

There had been additionally fairly just a few poor umpiring selections, specifically within the Sydney Test which went against India. Umpire Steve Bucknor, who was officiating the Test, not too long ago accepted the errors.

India had misplaced the primary Test by 337 runs and second Test by 122 runs however went on to win the third Test by 72 runs in Perth and the fourth and last Test in Adelaide led to a draw.

Kumble stated: “I think as a captain, or as a team, we had gone there to win the series. Unfortunately, with the first two results not going our way, the best result could have been a drawn series because two more Test matches remained and I just wanted to rally around the team.

“We got around as a unit and then we sort of took a decision to continue and make sure that we go on and win the next couple of matches because that would be the best message that we can give back our fans.”

Kumble had led India in 14 Tests, successful three, dropping six and drawing 5 instances after taking on the reigns from Rahul Dravid in 2007. He is the world’s all time third highest Test wicket-taker in an illustrious profession between 1990 and 2008.

(with PTI inputs)