Harbhajan hit with three-match ban
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan at the SCG
January 6, 2008

Harbhajan Singh has been banned for three Tests for a racial slur against Andrew
Symonds © Getty Images
Harbhajan Singh has been found guilty of making a racist comment to Andrew
Symonds
on the third day of the Sydney Test and slapped with a three-match ban. Mike
Procter, the
match referee, ruled at the end of a four-hour hearing that Harbhajan had
breached Level
3 of the ICC's Code of Conduct. The Indian team management said it would appeal
against
the ban.

The charge was brought by the on-field umpires after they received a complaint
from
Ricky Ponting, Australia's captain. The incident occurred when Harbhajan was
batting with
Sachin Tendulkar during India's first innings on Saturday. It was alleged that
Harbhajan
had an argument with Symonds, during which time he called Symonds a "monkey".

Announcing his verdict, Procter said: "I am satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt
that
Harbhajan Singh directed that word at Andrew Symonds and also that he meant it
to
offend on the basis of Symonds' race or ethnic origin."

The ban takes place immediately and so will rule Harbhajan out of the rest of
the Test
series. The Indian management have 24 hours to lodge an appeal with the ICC and,
if they
do so, he will be free to play pending that hearing.

It also emerged that the Indians levelled a counter-claim of abuse against Brad
Hogg,
Australia's left-arm spinner. A report in the Sydney Morning Herald said the
Indians
accused Brad Hogg of using offensive language during the Test. The report stated
that the
hearing on Brad Hogg's conduct will, in all likelihood, be held on Monday.

MV Sridhar, the assistant manager, who spoke to the media before the decision
was
announced, said there was no video or audio evidence involving Harbhajan. "We
felt there
was no substantial evidence," he said.

The Indian board president, Sharad Pawar has said he was determined to preserve
strong
ties between the India and Australia. "There is an extremely good relationship
between the
countries," he told the Melbourne-based Age. "There has been a conflict on the
field and
an issue has been reported by some players, but I don't want to react. It is
important it
should not spoil the relationship between the countries or the teams. That is
not our
desire."

Siddhartha Vaidyanathan is an assistant editor at Cricinfo

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i couldn't c other post regarding this so i will start it..

i think the word monkey 2 be honest is harmless but i am not aboriginal so i
can't
comment if thats taken offense off as some words are. but i might ask some mates
who
are when i can and get there view of it.

no he coped a 3 match ban and they have threatened to end the tour now that
seems to be
like take my bat and bowl and going home... if they fell that way then go home
the game
was played hard and i enjoyed the close game i just think due the poor decisions
in the
match has made this bigger than it should be.

now with hogg huh i that just seems like sour grapes to me but i only heard this
in the
report above

anyway just my 20c again people will either disagree or agree with it

Cheers Nathan (yes i am still alive) lol