Sport - Cricket

Harbhajan provisionally suspended from IPL

— Photo: PTI

THIS ISN’T CRICKET: S. Sreesanth is in tears after being allegedly slapped by Harbhajan Singh on Friday night.

MOHALI: Despite the best attempts of the two players involved in the ‘slapping drama’ on Friday night to play down the incident, the Board of Control for Cricket in India has taken a serious view and asked Harbhajan Singh and S. Sreesanth to appear before the Match Referee Farokh Engineer in Delhi on Monday.

After reviewing the video footage, the IPL imposed a provisional suspension on Harbhajan, pending the hearing before Engineer.

Minutes after Kings XI Punjab defeated Mumbai Indians on Friday, Harbhajan apparently slapped S. Sreesanth. The Punjab team’s victory celebrations came to a halt as everyone watched Sreesanth weeping like a child.

The BCCI Chief Administrative Officer Ratnakar Shetty said that it was not a matter that could be sorted out between the two players. “Harbhajan Singh is a contracted player of the BCCI. The ICC Code of Conduct is applicable to him. The Board’s Disciplinary Committee will take the necessary action,” he said.

Under the ICC Code, assault on a player, official or spectator is a Level 4 offence and if the charge is proved, it can attract a “ban of between 5 Test Matches or 10 ODI matches up to a life ban for the player or official concerned.”

Mr. Shetty said that the IPL sanction would be restricted to IPL matches, but the BCCI’s action would be independent of the IPL decision since Harbhajan and Sreesanth were contracted players.

The Punjab team formally lodged a complaint on Saturday. Clarifying the same the IPL Chairman and Commissioner Lalit Modi said, “I have officially received a complaint from the team management of the Punjab Kings XI. The complaint has been forwarded to the Match Referee for a detailed inquiry into this.”

The team’s CEO Neil Maxwell told newspersons here, “it was a considered decision of the team to lodge a complaint after a team meeting today. It is not our intention to get anyone into unnecessary trouble. But the team has made the decision in the interest of cricket.”

“The BCCI has taken serious note of the incident between Harbhajan Singh and Sreesanth at Mohali yesterday,” BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah said in a release on Saturday.

“The BCCI condemns the behaviour of Harbhajan Singh as a contracted player of the Board and he is called upon to explain why disciplinary action should not be taken against him. He has been asked for clarification by Monday evening (April 28),” the release added.

The turn of events in Friday’s post-match incidents was not very clear, but apparently what precipitated matters were the Sreesanth’s gesticulations to some of the rival players when they came to bat.

During the media conference late on Friday night Harbhajan said he would ‘only talk cricket.’ Punjab skipper Yuvraj Singh and coach Tom Moody described the incident as ‘ugly’ and ‘totally unacceptable,’ but chose not to elaborate. “Harbhajan came to our dressing room and apologised to Sreesanth,” revealed Yuvraj.

Later, Sreesanth said that everything was ‘normal’ between Harbhajan and him. “It all in the game,” he said.

At the hotel, Sreesanth and Harbhajan spoke separately and interestingly, denied the ‘slapping’ incident. “It was not really a slap — the shake-hand was in the wrong place. Whatever happened should not have happened. But I am fine with it now,” said Sreesanth.

Harbhajan said he only ‘pushed’ Sreesanth. “I told him I am sorry if I hurt you. After all, we have played a lot of cricket together and there is plenty more to be played. Whatever happened, it was between us. As far as Sreesanth and I are concerned, we are over with it.”

Our Mumbai Special Correspondent reports

Harbhajan’s fate will be decided by the BCCI’s disciplinary committee consisting of President Sharad Pawar, President-elect Shashank Manohar (Vidarbha Cricket Association) and Vice-President, Chirayu Amin (Baroda Cricket Association).

Though Sreesanth has denied he was slapped by Harbhajan, it has been brought to the notice of the BCCI officials that a few Mumbai Indians players informed Sachin Tendulkar that Harbhajan had slapped Sreesanth.

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