'Monkeygate' led Symonds to booze!

Former all-rounder Andrew Symonds says the infamous "monkeygate" scandal with India a decade ago drove him to drink as he opened up Friday on how his life started spiralling out of control.

The big-hitting Australian accused spinner Harbhajan Singh of calling him a "monkey" in the 2008 New Year Test in Sydney. Singh, who denied any wrongdoing, was suspended for three matches, but the ban was overturned when India threatened to quit the tour in what was a low point in India-Australia cricket relations.

Ten years on and Australian cricket is again reeling from the behaviour of its players after the cheating scandal in South Africa and a review this week that slammed both Cricket Australia and the culture of the team.

Symonds continues to insist Harbhajan called him a monkey "probably two or three times".

"From that moment on that was my downhill slide," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

He said his guilt over the way the process played out took a heavy toll after his teammates were "dragged in" to back up his account of being racially abused.

"I started to drink heavily as a result of it and my life was starting to dissolve around me," Symonds said. "I felt the pressure and the weight of dragging those mates of mine into the cauldron of this cesspit that should never have got to this sort of point where we felt guilty.

Symonds' Cricket Australia contract was withdrawn in June 2009 after he was sent home from the World Twenty20 following the latest in a series of alcohol-related indiscretions.

"I'd spoken to Harbhajan the series before in India, he'd called me a monkey before in India. I went into their dressing room and said, 'Can I speak to Harbhajan for a minute outside please?' So he came outside and I said, 'Look, the name-calling's got to stop or else it's going to get out of hand.'"

Despite the animosity the pair eventually made up and played together in the Indian Premier League.