The case-against Harbhajan

The Symonds affair and the charge of racial abuse laid against Harbhajan-Singh by Ricky-Ponting could change the way in which international cricket is regulated.

Newspaper reports seem to suggest that the umpires didn’t hear the exchange that gave rise to the charge. Channel 9 has reviewed its audio tapes and found no record of the offensive comments either.

The other possibility is that in the course of the hearing, Tendulkar, who was batting with Harbhajan at the time and who seemed to have heard part of the exchange, isn’t able to whole-heartedly exonerate Harbhajan.

However, if neither tape nor Tendulkar backs up the Australian charge, then international cricket’s in trouble. Cricket has been down this road once before.

Some years ago Rashid-Latif was accused by Adam-Gilchrist of calling him a ‘white c__t”. Australian cricketers famously leave on-field quarrels on the field.

Ponting has chosen to take Harbhajan to ‘court’. But if Ponting can’t come up with the evidence for a ‘conviction’, if his case is based on 'Symonds' word.

Players and officials will be asking for stump microphones to be left on all the time, so that allegations of this sort in the future can be settled by technology.

Via Cricinfo