By Veturi Srivatsa, IANS
New Delhi : Hectic discussions, long-distance teleconferencing and low-key diplomacy saw India spinner Harbhajan Singh being exonerated of the charge of racially abusing Australia’s all-rounder Andrew Symonds and his three-Test ban lifted.
Once the players involved in the unsavoury incident in the Sydney Test gave a written statement and also made oral submissions before International cricket Council (ICC) appeals Commissioner John Hansen, things have automatically fallen in place – a face-saver for the players as well as the two boards.
After hearing the players out, Hansen found little evidence to prove an offence under the rule 3.3 of the code conduct, which deals with racial abuse.
The players have told Judge Hansen that the whole case against Harbhajan was built on a misunderstanding and lack of communication. The Australian players have agreed that in the heat of the moment they have misconstrued what Harbhajan said and when it was clarified to them later they were satisfied that there was no racial slur in the language used.
The Indians for their part have assured the Australians that Harbhajn’s intent was not to hurt Symonds and that what he had said got lost in the “cultural differences and the language barriers between the two teams”.
The whole exercise to defuse the highly volatile situation went on till the early hours Tuesday before the two teams and the board could hammer out a solution to everyone’s satisfaction.
Indian cricket board sources said its former president Inderjit Singh Bindra, who was invited by Cricket Australia (CA) chairman Craigh O’Connor to witness the fourth and final Test in Adelaide and also join the Australia Day celebrations, played a key role in bringing the warring parties together. He had a meeting with skipper Anil Kumble, his deputy Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Sachin Tendulkar and manager Chetan Chauhan before discussing the matter with CA officials.
The Australian players are believed to have relented and agreed to say that it was a misunderstanding provided they it did not appear as if they had lied before ICC match referee Mike Procter who on circumstantial evidence had severely punished Harbhajan.
Prior to Tuesday’s hearing, a letter signed by all the players involved from both sides was tendered into evidence as an agreed statement of facts as to what took place in Sydney.
The hearing lasted the full day and included video and audio evidence of the incident in question. During the hearing, oral evidence was called by John Jordan, counsel assisting Hansen. The judge also heard evidence from all witnesses to the exchange between Harbhajan and a number of Australian players.
These witnesses were then cross-examined by Brian Ward, counsel representing the Australian players, and advocate V.R Manohar, who represented Harbhajan from Mumbai via video conferencing. At the conclusion of the oral evidence, submissions were heard from all counsel.
Hansen said he was convinced that, based on all the evidence submitted before him, the charge of a Level 3.3 offence was not proven but that Harbhajan should be charged with a Level 2.8 offence.
Indian board president Sharad Pawar and secretary Niranjan Shah welcomed Hansen’s decision to downgrade the charge from racial abuse to simply using abusive language. The racial abuse charge was unacceptable to the board as well as the players who maintained that Harbhajan had never used a racial slur against Symonds.
The Indian team was happy with the development as the players had backed Harbhajan ever since Procter found him guilty of racially abusing Symonds. The two on-field umpires Steve Bucknor and Mark Benson complained to the match referee after Australia captain Ricky Ponting brought the incident to their notice.
Hansen’s hearing was held at the Adelaide Federal court as it had the facilities and technology for teleconferencing and video recording of the proceedings.
The Indian team, which stayed in Adelaide for the tribunal referral hearing, later left for Melbourne to play theTwenty20 match against Australia Friday and then the Commonwealth Bank triangular one-day series, starting in Brisbane Sunday.
Cricket Australia’s spokesman Peter Young and skipper Anil Kumble spoke for the two sides. Young said CA wants the teams to leave the unsavoury incident behind and concentrate on the tri-series. “All parties will move on with the cricket as the game is the important thing.”
Agreeing with Young, Kumble said: “It’s time to move on. This matter was lingering on for the last two weeks or so, although cricket was being played, but now the matter is settled. I’m really happy and relieved, not just for Harbhajan, but for cricket overall. It’s time to start concentrating on the game.”
The original complaint against Harbhajan was that while batting alongside Sachin Tendulkar in the first innings of the Sydney Test, the offspinner allegedly called Symonds “a monkey”.
An angry Indian board refused to accept Procter’s verdict and threatened to cancel the remainder of the tour unless the charge was dropped. The players were livid that Procter had relied heavily on the deposition of Matthew Hayden and Michael Clarke, ignoring Tendulkar’s insistence that Harbhajan had not racially abused Symonds.
The Indians, however, agreed to go through with the Test series following ICC withdrawing West Indian umpire Steve Bucknor for the third Test in Perth and allowing Harbhajan to play till his appeal against Procter’s finding was disposed of.
The Indian and Australian cricket boards said later Tuesday that captains of both teams were “satisfied” with the “constructive conclusion” of the re-hearing.
“Singh and Symonds said they had resolved the on-field issue between them in Sydney and now intend to move on. They said they intended to make no further comment on the issue and intended to get on with the game of cricket, which is the most important issue for each of them,” Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and Cricket Australia (CA) said in a joint statement in Adelaide.
“Both captains (Anil Kumble and Ricky Ponting) also said they were satisfied with the outcome between their respective players and they looked forward to the cricket battles that lie ahead of the two nations which are currently the top two ranked Test nations in world cricket,” the statement said.