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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Bhajji and tour are safe, Bucknor is out

India may not have won the war yet, but they did get the better of a significant battle with controversial umpire Steve Bucknor moved out of his assignment in the third Test at Perth.

Also, the International Cricket Council, in a bid to defuse brewing tensions between the Indians and the hosts, decided to fly in the head of the match referees' panel, Mr Ranjan Madugalle, in time for the third Test.

In effect, this will supersede the authority of current match referee Mike Procter. It was the South African's decision to hand a three-match ban to Harbhajan Singh on a Level 3.3 breach of the ICC Code of Conduct relating to racism that almost directly led to the current impasse.

The BCCI, after a late night working committee meeting, announced that the series Down Under would "continue for the present". The board, however, made it clear that the ban against Harbhajan Singh was "totally unacceptable". Mr Sharad Pawar has been authorised to use every resource to clear the off-spinner of the "obnoxious and baseless" charge. "The working committee of BCCI took note of relevant circumstances and developments and decided

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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