Harbhajan cleared

Harbhajan Singh has had his three-Test ban dropped after Justice John Hansen cleared him of making racial comments during the Sydney Test. I have to rush out and won't be in the office today so I leave this as an open thread for people to leave their views, which will be moderated later. But I make the following views:

1) If they felt that he had done nothing wrong, India were right to fight this to clear his name. They should now refrain from gloating or complaining about being picked on and get on with the cricket.

2) If Australia thought they had heard a racial slur, they were right to complain. They should now accept that they were mistaken, not complain about the verdict and get on with the cricket.

3) Regardless of racial abuse, the Test series was ugly in places, with both sides going a bit too far in tub-thumping and competitiveness. In Adelaide, India's jostling of the umpire was unseemly and, although I did not see this incident, there was an allegation that Karthik spat at Clarke. Clearly this is unacceptable. Harbhajan's exoneration should not overshadow the fact that Test cricket was not being played by grown-ups this winter.

4) The ICC were aware of the quality of evidence before the appeal and whether there was the need for lengthy testimony and legal investigation. That the hearing was concluded after only one day bothers me. The ICC came close to bending their own rules to suspend the hearing until after the Test series, but there were more than six days between Hansen being appointed and the Perth Test starting, plenty of time it now appears to have allowed an appeal.

Comments

[kottresh]

This is an Indian point of view! The abuse, 'Teri maki' is more offending than the abuse, 'Monkey'! Looks like Only Indians can understand this! I find the judgement perfect! It would have been more perfect if Symonds and Harbajan Singh BOTH received a couple of match suspensions. Both were guilty - one for provoking and the other for reacting and his history. I fail to understand why can't people be neutral and look at the truth!

[rext]

Five convictions for Harbijhan and a $3000 fine??!!
Anyone who defends this man has a seriously corrupted set of values.
As President Truman said "When you've got them by the ..... their hearts and minds will follow!"
Sounds like the relationship between the BCCI and the ICC to me!

[John]

The crowds in Mumbai chanted racial abuse BECAUSE of the racist abuse hurled by aussie crowds in the preceeding couple of years against touring teams. Its always aussies who start these sort of things.(including their prime minister, who had brazenly attacked Murali's action).
On the field, without the sledging, the aussie cricketers lose half their potency straightaway.
Just look at their pathetic performance in Adelaide test- less than 3 runs per over! Does anyone have any doubts that aussies were scared shit of LOSING the final test?

I would not be surprised if all the comments/blogs made by people assuming famous names (Gandhi, vengsarkar, Richards, Pope, George Bush etc etc) were actually written by ONE person- just to make it appear that there is overwhelming aussie support. Far from it- you aussie whingers will always remain wretched morons....

[Vick Suri]

1. Bhajji probably said that and if he did should have been banned BUT THERE IS NO PROOF so cant be sentenced. Basic rule of law, old chaps.

2. One thing is for sure though - lot of fun yanking the you know what of the erstwhile IMPERIAL cricket council big boys

Vick Suri, New Delhi, India

[Urban_legend]

I'd say the extended comments by Judge Hansen put things into a rather different perspective. Harbhajan is definitely to blame but for first time an official has said that Symonds is to blame as well for instigating. I quite like his retort to the Symonds comment that cricket is not about being friendly.

[Kap]

Tendulkar is accused of "creative testimony" by a previous Australian contributor. Having read Hansen's judgement I was wondering what the Aussies make of the fact that both Clarke and Hayden claimed to have have heard the monkey taunt yet could not recall the abuse from Symonds that ignited the situation. Very strange that Clarke claimed Symonds said nothing ( a point contradicted by Symonds himself) whilst Hayden rather conveniently heard nothing except "big monkey". Pardon me and Justice Hansen for doubting their persuasive testimony when Symonds himself admitted he could possibly have misheard a Punjabi cuss as monkey. Thankfully in a court of law the Aussie claim to be the guardians of the spirit of cricket is not accepted without question. After today's publication of Hansen's judgement I assume the Aussie press pack will reassess their hysterically xenophobic take on how the BCCI bought a perverse justice. Can we look forward to Symonds being charged for the abuse that kicked this all off?

[bharath]

OK i am sick and tired of this shit .. and just to clear all air .. im indian.. look both sides are guilty ... I just hope ppl dont confuse the BCCI and the indian cricket team .. so those against the BCCI .. dont hate our team .. coz u must understand that they are as helpless... look whatever said and done .. both symonds and harbhajan are at fault .. and honestly i dont give a crap.. i saw some brilliant cricket some crap cricket and some demolition .. ITS SAD THAT SUCH A NICE CONTEST IS MARRED BY A COUPLE OF IDIOTS ! .. . i log onto cricinfo expecting some nice coverage regarding the contest and all i get is a load of rubbish .. and PS .. UNFORTUNATELY .. MONEY DOES TALK .. AND AS MUCH AS WE INDIANS HATE TO ADMIT IT .. THE BCCI IS COMPOSED OF A BUNCH OF DICKS ..

[Clint Eastwood]

The Indian Cricket Board reminds me of David Brent from the Office

[Ashok]

To put things in perspective:

1/ Harbhajan Singh was charged for racially abusing Symonds.

2/ Brad Hogg was charged for abusing Indian players using a word that would have surely caused a fistfight in India

3/ The Indians withdrew the charge, Cricket Australia did not reciprocate the show of goodwill

4/ The Indians resorted to blatant muscle flexing to bulldoze their way through.

Granted that the BCCI's conduct wasn't exemplary, but what about Cricket Australia's own conduct? And secondly, who started the entire tussle?

And who, in the end, has the right claim the moral high ground?

[Billy Idol]

I watched it myself on TV: as the players walk off the ground, Dinesh Karthick first gives Clarke the evil eye and then spits directly across his path. The footage is still on my DVR machine. This, because Clarke stood his ground when the Indians appealed very strongly for a catch that quite clearly never hit the bat ... a fact that, I point out, must have been pretty obvious to Karthick given the position he was fielding in.

But that's right, Clarke's dishonest, isn't he? I forgot about that. Of course he is. A man records his first duck in Test cricket, stands there in shock for a few seconds and looks disbelievingly down the pitch, but then leaves immediately when the umpire signals ... well, yes, that would prove dishonesty if the player is Australian. On the other hand, when an Indian player called Ishant gets out in dramatic circumstances (but in an equally unambiguous manner), so that his team loses a match they really should have drawn, it's OK for him to stand there in shock for a few seconds staring down the pitch in disbelief...

[Nelson Mandela]

So the facts are now in. Their national board did threaten to strike because they wanted their players to be free continue to be allowed abuse black players with impunity under the brilliant argument that Indians (a) can't be racist therefore even if they say patently racist things they don't really mean it and (b) they like monkeys!

And now apparently they want the rule to be that racist abuse isnt' punishable as long as the speaker says they didn't mean to be offensive even if they have previously told that it is racist and why. In line with that policy I'm sure some people here might like to say a few things to some posters - in a non-offensive way of course, and strictly in line with their cultures (mine is African)

[Peter Lalor]

Ricky Ponting manages a team of various shades and hues and ethnicity and race.. Chinese, Melanesian, Anglo/ Caribbean, Anglo/Koori, all sorts, all manner of heritage and ancestry. Introspector cannot seem to grasp that it ain't all white.. some are even freckled..

what he sees, and what actually IS , is worlds apart. .. but never mind all that. What the ancestry of any Au player is , is their own business, and not mine, and it doesn't really matter what the colour of the adressee or adresser is. It was meant to obscenely abuse, and that's that. We know that, because HARBHAJAN PLEADED GUILTY TO IT.

So has Proctor been hung out to dry? Probably. Possibly. Has Symonds? absolutely. Has Harbhajan?? in a way, yes. From stating he said NOTHING, not even good morning, to now stating he was offensively abusive, either he was leant on, or he found a way out of a heavier matter. Dont know, But I am curious about that bit of it all.

[George Bush]

The "racist" slur generates an emotional response and Procter was denied a full test career by South Africa's isolation due to its apartheid policies. We will see whether Judge Hansen thinks Procter could have been more objective. If it is based on actual evidence or lack thereof then we have a conclusion. Some people won't like it. That's life.

One thing I haven't seen mentioned much is the actual wording used by Judge Hansen: "not proven". Doesn't Scottish law use verdicts like this? That's not saying Harbhajan did use the m-word and it's not saying he didn't use the m-word. It's saying that there isn't any evidence to back the allegation up.

Who is on the ICC's match referee panel these days?

How about a profile of each referee and their record as a referee so people can compare them.

Remember the furore after Mike Denness acted against four Indian players in South Africa in 2001? Remember that the BCCI threatened to pull out of that tour? The UCBSA capitualted before the BCCI and refused Denness entry to the ground for the next test. This is standard BCCI bullying tactics.

PS I am thinkin about those Nukes!

[Inziman Ul Haq]

There are some other points to consider. Symonds was clearly subject to racial abuse on the recent tour of India. The BCCI flatly denied it until caught on television camera.

In the most recent test, Sourav Ganguly refused to walk when clearly caught (Clarke's was 50/50), and, infact, only departed after waiting for replays. Also, Danesh Kartik spat at Michael Clarke, and the Indians vociferously appealed when the batsmen was cleary not out. So much for India always playing in the 'spirit of cricket.'

Far more important than the fact that the Indians are no more angels than the Australians, is the degree to which the ICC has been held to ransom by the BCCI. The BCCI have behaved like petulent children.

[Miller Chill]

is spitting at someone a 'high caste thing' or a 'low caste thing'... ??

I merely enquire.. Perhaps among Dinesh Karthick's social parameters , spitting on another person is acceptable. It must be rather awkward to walk among them in that case.. are they segregated?

the thing is, I can't think of any other social group and I include New Guinea Highlanders who were only discovered 70 years ago and who only discovered other tribes at the same time, who regard that as anything other than revolting.

[Martin Luther King]

I have many Indian friends - both West Indians of 'East Indian' descent and Indians straight from India itself. So I do understand the caste system.

I reject the idea that it is hard for an Indian to be a racist. I have encountered plenty who find it very easy, whether high caste, low caste or no caste.

Just because you have been a victim of racism, does not mean that you are incapable of being racist right back. That is nonsense.

I have seen it suggested that Harbhajan used the term 'terri manki' or something else that sounded like 'monkey' in order to offend but get away with it.

IF he did that, it was malicious, slimy and underhand, ESPECIALLY after all the controversy that term caused during the Australian tour of India. I cannot buy the argument either that Indians or at least Harbhajan does understand why the term 'monkey' would be offensive - from accounts, Symmonds EXPLAINED this to him back in October.

If Harbhajan really thinks this term is so inoffensive to black people, I urge him to try it next time he comes to the West Indies - maybe in some friendly place like Jamaica.

[Father Maroney]

After all that occurred in the previous tour, the Indian and Australian boards had clearly defined that the monkey slur is racist in this context.
There is no excuse.
The ICC may as well stop monkeying around and let the BCCI grind the organ.

[Billy Joel]

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio

Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe

Rosenbergs, H-Bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom
Brando, "The King and I", and "The Catcher in the Rye"

Eisenhower, vaccine, England's got a new queen
Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye

CHORUS
We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Josef Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev
Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc

Roy Cohn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, dacron
Dien Bien Phu Falls, "Rock Around the Clock"

Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn's got a winning team
Davy Crockett, "Peter Pan", Elvis Presley, Disneyland

Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Khrushchev
Princess Grace, "Peyton Place", trouble in the Suez

CHORUS

Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac
Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, "Bridge on the River Kwai"

Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California baseball
Starkweather, homicide, children of thalidomide

Buddy Holly, "Ben-Hur", space monkey, Mafia
hula hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no go

U2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy
Chubby Checker, "Psycho", Belgians in the Congo

CHORUS

Hemingway, Eichmann, "Stranger in a Strange Land"
Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs Invasion

"Lawrence of Arabia", British Beatlemania
Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson

Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British politician sex
JFK, blown away, what else do I have to say

CHORUS

Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon, back again
Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock
Begin, Reagan, Palestine, terror on the airline
Ayatollolah's in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan

"Wheel of Fortune" , Sally Ride, heavy metal, suicide
Foreign debts, homeless vets, AIDS, Crack, Bernie Goetz
Hypodermics on the shores, China's under martial law
Rock and Roller Cola Wars, I can't take it anymore

CHORUS

We didn't start the fire
But when we are gone
Will it still burn on, and on, and on, and on...

[Dilip Vengsakar]

I'm an Indian guy who loves giving it to big West Indian women so I know a thing or two about Monkeys. They are gorgeous, the bigger the better and they go like the clappers.

[The Pope]

Surely issues such as racism are greater than the game itself, and surely the good of the game outweighs a cricketing nation's need to clear it's players name at all costs.

As for the spitting incident involving Michael Clarke, I wonder what the BCCI's spin on that one will be? (Perhaps the player in question was really sneezing?)

India have disgraced themselves on this tour from Tendulkar's 'creative' testimony to Singh's 'abuse' to Gavaskar's attack on Mike Procter to the BCCI's bullying.

If the cricketing world as a whole accepts this type of cr*p
and 'moves on' as the BCCI would hope, then we are doomed to play on their terms from here on.

he whole affair just disgusts me.

[MAHATMA GANDHI]

most Indians are surprised to hear that Symonds is of Black descent! You know why? He looks as white to us as anyone else in the Aussie team! In fact, I was shocked to hear he is of Black descent, though I have seen many Blacks myself!

But a Monkey is a Monkey. Monkey see. Monkey do.

[Lefty Lampton]

Like the firings of Hair, Bucknor and (effectively) Mike Dennis and now Proctor, this will have long reaching consequences.

For one, India will never abide by the laws of the game. This stinking back room deal is the cricket equivalent of the Munich Agreement in '38 (ie "peace with honour"). India will simply charter a plane everytime they don't get their way. Why wouldn't they, now that they have the ICC under their heal?

Expect other teams (eg Pakistan re the Oval) to follow suit. When the rule of law breaks down, anarchy follows.

Sledging will now also be forever a part of the game. Bajji did about the worst thing a player can do (short of physical assualt) and he got away with it. Any player charged from now on can do so knowing that the worse that will happen is a trifling fine.

In future, the Australians will also redraft their broadcasting contracts so that they can't be sued if the Indians take their bat and ball home

[Roy Race]

you can carry on arguing ad infinitum about what was or wasn't said, what was or wasn't pleaded, and what Harbajan did or did not have for breakfast that morning. Until someone comes out and tell us the whole story in my eyes there is no point raking over the maybes.

What there is a point in doing, however, is discussing the overall point of Patrick's excellent article, which is the role of the ICC in not only this matter but the whole issue of the future of cricket. They are precariously placed, because up to a point for financial reasons they are forced to bow to the sub-continental block, because it is there that the money comes from, as illustrated by the ludicrous salaries the new ICL is generating.

Having said that, what they are seemingly not doing at present, as Patrick says, is taking a stand on any matter. On three occasions now (4 if you count the World Cup Final farce), the ICC have been happier scapegoating its employees, rather than taking the in question Asian team to task (World Cup Final excepted - but did banning elite umpires from the Twenty20 WC achieve anything?). There are few umpires or players in the game who agree with its handling of Hair (or whisper it quietly agree with the overall decision - what's that Rudi? - and is someone still looking for that ball?), or the treatment of Bucknor (don't forget another ICC Elite Umpire). At some stage the ICC has to put its foot down, and stop pretending the game is in rude health - it is sick, but the main governing body is happier appeasing the big financial power-bloc rather than getting to the root of the problem...

[John Cleese]

I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay...

Don't mention the War.

[Sir Viv Richards]

Yes, there has always been racism in cricket, aimed at those of 'brown and black skinned countries' as you put it.

But your comment that Procter chose to believe white skins over brown skins is nonsense. Last I checked, Andrew Symmonds was a black man. Stop trying to make out that the Indians are the victims of racism here and even worse - that the BCCI is standing up to racism. What a joke! The same BCCI that disingenuously claimed that their fans were not behaving in a racist manner towards Symmonds when Aus played in India last year? Until it was captured on video? That BCCI?

The BCCI is the real hangover from the colonial era - their spoilt, high-handed behaviour is but the latest manifestation of the bullying and imperial attitude that has long plagued cricket.

So with all that said, kindly don't try to bring us black skinned West Indians (of which Symmonds is biologically one) into your fight - it is CLEAR we are not on the same side.