By IANS,
New Delhi : Mumbai Indians stand-in captain Harbhajan Singh was Monday banned for the rest of the Indian Premier League (IPL) matches this season and fined 100 percent of his last match fee for slapping Kings XI Punjab pacer Sreesanth.
“The match referee went through the video footage and found the incident was totally unprovoked. Just after the match, Harbhajan was shaking hands with all Kings XI players and Sreesanth was third among the players.
“Instead of shaking hands, Harbhajan slapped him and proceeded,” IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi told reporters here while announcing the decision of adjudicator Farokh Engineer.
“He has been found guilty of violating level 4.2 of the ICC (International Cricket Council) code of conduct that relates to physical assault on a player on a field which is a very serious offence. He has been banned for the rest of the IPL this season,” he added.
Harbhajan was penalised 100 percent of his fee for that particular match and will not get any payment for the rest of the series. He will only be paid for the first two matches.
Mumbai Indians team manager Lalchand Rajput was also penalised 50 percent of his match fee as he was found guilty of breaching the spirit of the game. He was a witness to the incident but didn’t take appropriate action.
Both Harbhajan and Sreesanth were present at the hearing and hugged each other at the press conference.
“I want to say that I committed a mistake and have been penalised for it. The board has always supported me and this time also they have taken a good decision,” said Harbhajan.