Bhajji gets 11 game ban

Harbhajan Singh was handed an 11-match ban after pleading guilty to slapping his India teammate Shantakumaran Sreesanth at the end of the Mumbai Indians versus Kings XI Punjab Indian Premier League match in Mohali on April 25 before adjudicator and match referee Farrokh Engineer here on Monday.

The length of the ban means that the spinner is out of the inaugural edition of the IPL unless Mumbai reach the semifinals of the tournament, which seems quite unlikely now.

Harbhajan is also likely to face action at the hands of the Board of Control for Cricket in India as he is a centrally contracted player. The BCCI has appointed a lawyer, Sudhir Nanavati, to conduct the preliminary inquiry.

The temperamental off-spinner was also fined 100 per cent of his match fee from the third match onwards in the IPL, while Mumbai Indians coach Lalchand Rajput was penalised 50 per cent of his match fee for not restraining Harbhajan after the game at Mohali. The spinner’s contract was for 14 matches for the 2008 IPL season, out of which he will receive the match fee for the first two matches he played.

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India Versus South Africa - Proteas Trapped in Kanpur Twister

The pitch crumbled, as did the South Africans. Two days of evenly poised action in this Test, and nine days of super performances by them in the series were undone in one appalling session of play as the visitors handed an eight-wicket win to India on Day Three of the third Test at the Green Park here on Sunday.

From 90/4 in 39 overs just prior to tea, the visitors collapsed to 121 all out in 55.5 overs, spanning just an hour-and-a-half of play. Set a target of 62 to win, India broke no sweat in clinching the game and levelling the series 1-1.

Sourav Ganguly had talked about how imperative a good performance was on the third day. The team thereafter put his words into action. A deteriorating surface notwithstanding, India’s last pair of Ishant Sharma and Shantha kumaran Sreesanth put on 46 feisty runs, stretching the lead to a nifty 60.

From the overnight score of 288/9, the duo edged and pushed for 70 more balls frustrating the South African captain Graeme Smith who would have been hoping for a quick mop-up from his bowlers.

Ntini and Steyn were wayward and Harris was negotiated without much ado. To their credit, though, Sreesanth and Sharma had their share of luck, with a combined total of four edges managing to evade the fielders and a catch held off a no-ball.

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International Cricket Council appeals commissioner Justice John Hansen on Tuesday gave a stinging rebuke to match referee Mike Procter by dropping the punishment on a charge of racist abuse levelled against Harbhajan Singh.

Justice Hansen of the New Zealand high court set aside the three Test ban imposed on the off-spinner by Procter following complaints that Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds had been called a "monkey" during the third day of the Sydney Test early this month.

The charge against Harbhajan was downgraded from a level 3.3 breach of the ICC's code of conduct to level 2.8, use of abusive language, and he has been fined half his match fees.

In all, Justice Hansen heard about five hours of evidence at the Federal Court here from Harbhajan, Sachin

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Bishan Bedi calls Bhajji a ‘chucker'

Former India captain Bishan Singh Bedi, no stranger to controversy, may have stirred the pot once again when pointing a finger at Harbhajan Singh's bowling action. In Australia to play charity cricket, Mr Bedi was quite uncharitable about two leading off-spinners of world cricket today (Harbhajan and Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan) when he spoke to a Melbourne newspaper. Speaking to the Sunday Age, Mr Bedi said: "He (Harbhajan) is not any different (from..

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Image and article source : Deccan Chronicle
Article taken from the issue: 3 Dec, 2007