By IANS
Brisbane : Harbhajan Singh, one of India’s heroes in the title-win over Australia in the Commonwealth Bank series has branded Australian crowd behaviour as “despicable” and said he had nothing to apologise for over his actions in Sunday’s one-day final. Through the last few days he has had his own running battle with theg crowds.
However, the spinner also kept his sense of humour intact.
When asked if officials should evict spectators who go too far. “If they wanted to do it, they would have to empty the whole stadium,” he said.
Harbhjan said, “Trust me, I didn’t say anything to the crowd, but the language they said to me was despicable,” he said. “It crossed all limits of decency.”
He added, “I had smoke coming out of my ears.”
Harbhajan claimed he had spat only at the ground after drinking water during his spell of bowling that claimed the scalps of Matthew Hayden and Andrew Symonds.
“If you have water on the boundary, and saliva in your mouth, what else are you supposed to do but spit it out?” he said.
But when asked about his alleged monkey chants towards the crowd, Harbhajan was less clear.
“I don’t remember what I was doing,” he said.
Spectators yesterday told the Herald Sun Harbhajan had motioned as if to scratch his armpits with both hands in the manner fans did when taunting Symonds in the one-day series in India last year.
Crowe yesterday investigated whether Harbhajan could have been charged for making a racist gesture. But, with no footage available, the issue was closed.
Harbhajan was shadowed by a police officer and a crowd control agent when fielding on the fence at the SCG.
The Indian spinner was earlier embroiled in a controversy, for allegedly making monkey gestures and spitting towards sections of the crowd during the win against Australia at the SCG in the first final.
Bhajji denied he spat directly at spectators, and he was cleared of any wrongdoing by the International Cricket Council because of a lack of evidence. ICC match referee Jeff Crowe said there was no case to answer.