Former India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh denied issuing an emotional apology to former Australia all-rounder Andrew Symonds over the ‘monkeygate’ controversy of the 2008 Sydney Test.

A decade back, relations between the two teams reached breaking point when Harbhajan was accused of calling Symonds a “monkey”, a charge that was denied by the Indian spinner. According to Symonds, the two called a truce three years later at the Indian Premier League where both played for the Mumbai Indians.

“We go to a very wealthy man’s place for a barbecue and dinner one night and the whole team’s there and he had guests there, and Harbhajan said ‘mate, can I speak to you for a minute out in the garden out the front’,” Symonds told Fox Sports.

“He goes, ‘look, I’ve got to say sorry to you for what I did to you in Sydney. I apologise, I hope I didn’t cause you, your family, your friends too much harm and I really apologise for what I said, I shouldn’t have said it’. And he actually broke down crying, and I could just see that was a huge weight off his shoulders, he had to get rid of it. We shook hands and I gave him a hug and said: ‘Mate, it’s all good. It’s dealt with’.”

However, Harbhajan said such an incident did not take place and accused Symonds of cooking up the story.

“I thought he was a very good cricketer but Symonds has turned out to be a good fiction writer – he sold a story then (2008) and he is ‘selling a story’ now (2018). Mate, the world has come of age in these 10 years and it’s time you also grew up,” Harbhajan tweeted.