When Symonds, Harbhajan hugged and apologised to each other

Former Australia all-rounder Andrew Symonds has died following a car accident in Queensland on Sunday.

Symonds, 46, played 238 matches, including 26 Tests, between 1998-2009. He was a member of Australia's World Cup-winning teams in 2003 and 2007 and appeared in 198 ODIs in addition to 14 T20Is.

One of the most controversial incidents of Symonds' career was the 'monkeygate' incident during the home series against India in 2008 when the Australian accused Harbhajan Singh of calling him a 'monkey' in the Sydney Test, a claim that the Indian spinner denied.

Earlier this year, Harbhajan revealed that he and Symonds buried the hatchet over the 'Monkeygate' incident when they played together for Mumbai Indians in the IPL in 2011.

"I remembered an incident when we were in Chandigarh. After playing a match that we won, we went to my friend’s place. There, we hugged for the first time and apologised to each other. We felt that the issue could have been sorted out in a more amicable manner. Both of us felt sorry. A lot of my friends from Mumbai Indians clicked pictures of that moment," Harbhajan said on Sportskeeda's special show SK Tales in April.

Harbhajan said initially he was a bit sceptical when he first heard that Symonds would be his team-mate at Mumbai Indians, but the duo got along well.

"When Mumbai picked him, the first thought that came to my mind was - ‘why did they pick him? How will we (me and Symonds) get along together?’."

"(But) when he entered the MI dressing room, Andrew was a different man altogether. I thought he would some angry person and I feel he would have thought the same about me."

Harbhajan went on to add as they met more often during the practice sessions in the IPL, they bonded very well. The duo started eating together and also spent a lot of time together.

"Infact, we used to eat together and sit together at night. The controversy between me and Symonds was blown out of proportion by the media. When we met, we never felt that there was any such animosity between us."