A day after photographers and spectators accused Harbhajan of making monkey gestures and repeatedly spitting at the crowd during Sunday’s first one-day final at the SCG, International Cricket Council match referee Jeff Crowe was unable to lay charges. “I have investigated the alleged incident with Cricket Australia’s ground security officials after reading newspaper reports and viewing related photographs that have been published,” Crowe said last night. “After reviewing all available information, I conclude that there is no need to take any action against Harbhajan Singh.” Harbhajan was saved by the fact that there was no television footage of the incident. In stark contrast to how Australia dealt with Matthew Hayden when he called Harbhajan an “obnoxious little weed” on radio last week, India has again refused to investigate the behaviour of its most sanctioned current player. The Australian understands that Harbhajan has not even been questioned about the incident, despite the fact he could have faced a level three charge for racial abuse, which carries a suspension. Instead India took its usual course of blanket denials, with India team manager Bimal Soni condemning the reports. “I think it is wrong,” Soni said. “Nothing has been done like that, they are making a mountain out of a molehill. He did nothing. These stories, I do not believe them and I strongly condemn them.” An angry Soni prevented media from talking to Harbhajan when he arrived at Brisbane airport yesterday for today’s second one-day final. India won the first final in Sydney thanks to a brilliant unbeaten century from Sachin Tendulkar, his first one-day hundred in Australia. Despite having the worst behaved team in the world, with almost twice as many ICC code of conduct violations as Australia, Indian officials continually refuse to pull their players into line.
Read full story at http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23314129-2722,00.html
Popularity: 18% [?]
Bookmark to:
Tags: cricket australia, harbhajan-singh, racial abusest_tag_cloud();
No Comments »
No comments yet.
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
Leave a comment
If you want to leave a feedback to this post or to some other user´s comment, simply fill out the form below.