Zeenews Bureau
Adelaide, Jan 29: In a major breakthrough in the Harbhajan Test ban case, racial charges have been dropped against the ace off-spinner. The verdict came soon after the players appealed to keep the spirit of the game paramount. Harbhajan has been fined only 50% of the match fees as he was tried under section 2.8 of the ICC code of conduct that saw the incident as one of abusing a player rather than any racist occurrence.
Harbhajan’s counsel for the hearing, VR Manohar, confirmed the verdict to the reporters and said that Harbhajan had indeed been cleared of the charges on racism and had been given the minimum penalty under section 2.8., merely 50% of the match fees. He further said that there was no evidence against Harbhajan that could have proven him guilty of passing racist remarks.
He also said that the fact that Harbhajan had a clean record from the past 10 years of his cricketing career helped in strengthening his case in front of the ICC. The fact that Andrew Symonds had a spat with him during the tour in India also escalated the problem.
During the lunch interval of the hearing on the issue, Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting had written a letter to the appeals commissioner, asking him to charge Harbhajan with use of offensive language and not racism. Even Andrew Symonds faltered during the hearing and said that he had no memory of the incident.
The hearing of Harbhajan Singh regarding the racial accusations against him began in the early hours on Tuesday as players from both the sides presented their version of the incident to the ICC appointed Justice Hanson. Among others, Sachin Tendulkar and Sreedhar from India were also present to present Harbhajan’s side of the story to the authorities.
It is learnt that Team India has refused to depart for Melbourne till the offfie is cleared of all the charges against him. From the Australian front, Ricky Ponting, Andrew Symonds, Michael Clarke and Matthew Hayden are attending the hearing.
A decision on the outcome of the appeal may not be known until later this week, according to media reports here.
The hearing has already created furore when Justice Hansen, the appointed judge for the case, called for extra evidence from ‘stump microphones,’ a demand not acceptable to BCCI.
The latest developments have not gone down well with BCCI president Sahard Pawar, as he said, “The racial charge is not acceptable and if the charge is not removed the remaining tour will be called off.”
Pawar said, “We are with the team and would do anything to protect India’s and team’s interests.” The BCCI president’s latest statement has put the whole tour in jeopardy.
BCCI’s main objection to the hearing is the use of new evidence. One of the officials from the governing body said, “The evidence could be tampered, it could be doctored. We wouldn`t allow this so-called fresh evidence to surface after so many days.”
India Stumped
BCCI on the other hand was caught off-guard as Justice Hansen was supposed to hear the case only after Harbhajan appealed against match referee Mike Proctor’s decision. BCCI sources have categorically stated that remaining part of the tour will be called off if Harbhajan is not cleared of the charges, as the claim was ‘absurd.’
Harbhajan was found guilty of making racist remarks about all-rounder Andrew Symonds, Australia`s only black player, during the second Test in Sydney earlier this month a charge BCCI said was ‘not acceptable.’
Board secretary Niranjan Shah was categorical when he said, “India would take any decision on the matter after the hearing, but this latest talk of using stump microphone was not acceptable.”
Strangely, BCCI as perceived had not sent any counsel to assist Team India on the day of hearing.
Earlier, Harbhajan had denied the charges and BCCI had lodged an appeal on his behalf.
Adjudicator
New Zealand High Court Judge John Hansen said he planned to review all the evidence from the initial hearing and may also consider some additional evidence unavailable to the match referee Mike Proctor at the original hearing.
"This will be a re-hearing with evidence given by all of the witnesses who gave evidence to the adjudicator Procter," Hansen said in a statement.
"There may also be some additional evidence such as the transcript and video available from the stump cam that was not available to Procter."
The BCCI briefly suspended its team`s tour of Australia and threatened to cancel the rest of the trip unless Harbhajan was cleared on appeal.
They later withdrew the threat and agreed to continue playing after the ICC made a number of concessions, including the sacking of West Indian umpire Steve Bucknor and allowing Harbhajan to play until his appeal had been heard.
