By IANS
Kolkata : Harbhajan Singh Monday received backing from his former India teammate Deep Dasgupta on the racial slur issue. The Delhi-born Bengal wicketkeeper said the Indian cricket board should put its foot down like it did in 2001 in the face of a somewhat similar controversy.
Dasgupta, who is now a member of the rebel Indian Cricket League, said that on the tour of South Africa in 2001, the Jagmohan Dalmiya-headed Indian Board had firmly backed the national team after six players, including him and Harbhajan, were banned for excessive appealing, using foul language and ball tampering.
The banned players were Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Shiv Sunder Das and Sourav Ganguly, besides Harbhajan and Dasgupta.
While Dalmiya declined to comment — “I refrain to make any comment on the issue. See cricket history” – Dasgupta told IANS, “It is time someone in BCCI put his foot down and did something against the whole thing.”
The current controversy began with some poor umpiring decisions by Steve Bucknor of the West Indies and Mark Benson of England and Andrew Symonds’ allegation that Harbhajan had made racial comments against him during the Sydney test which India lost to go 0-2 down in the four-match series.
But soon after the 122-run defeat the tour plunged into uncertainty after the Indian board appealed to the International Cricket Council (ICC) to defer the three-Test match ban imposed on Harbhajan by match referee Mike Procter and also to change the umpires for the third Test.