Re: Bhajji's ban lifted
a truly sad day in my view. a guilty indian walking free because BCCI strong armed the ICC.
Abey yaar the bottom line is that the evidence was not substantial against bhajji...end of story. Whatever happens on the ground should stay on the ground. Aussies should have known better! I thought they were mentally tougher than they turned out to be.
I am not a Bhajji supporter btw...more of a Saqlain factor kinda guy..lol
Re: Bhajji's ban lifted
a truly sad day in my view. a guilty indian walking free because BCCI strong armed the ICC.
I agree it is a sad day for the game. But not because Bhajji walked free - I think that was going to happen anyway, because of the lack of evidence - Proctor's decision was based on pure hearsay, and there was no way it was going to stand up to any legal scrutiny. What is shameful is BCCI's extortionist handling of the situation, and the way CA and the ICC capitulated so easily. This kind of "I'm gonna take my bat and ball and go home" brinkmanship being so successful sets a very very bad precedent for the game. BCCI needs to stop behaving like a spoilt child and learn to handle its power more responsibly.
Re: Bhajji's ban lifted
a truly sad day in my view. a guilty indian walking free because BCCI strong armed the ICC.
for once I agree with you. If he did say those words, he should be punished. BCCI should have taken a neutral stand. Somehow I believe Bhaji did say monkey to Symonds.
But reporting that was bad on part of Australians, Symonds did intimidated him. Ponting should have sorted that out with Kumble.
Having seen and heard the stump microphone, I believe Bhaji said those words.
Re: Bhajji's ban lifted
^there is absolutely nothing shameful about BCCI standing up for their players especially since there was no evidence, a mockery of the game was made when proctor made the decision solely basing the australian word over the indian word. I am glad BCCI didnt take things lying down.
Re: Bhajji’s ban lifted
good for bhajji. :k: now astralians would know they are not the only ones that can get away with such filth on the field. good for india. :k:
Re: Bhajji's ban lifted
Even if Harbhajan said monkey, I don't care. Aussies took sledging to a new level and if someone else took a bit further, they don't get to cry fowl.
Re: Bhajji's ban lifted
all u monkeys condoning Bhajjis racist remark are racists yourselves. Let's admit it, he calling Symonds monkey was wrong.
Re: Bhajji's ban lifted
bhajji told the media tht he said ... "menu ki"
according to my source....bhajji was saying "meray mun ki Aas ho tum" and the Aussies thought he was calling Symonds a monkey ass..
oh well we will never know what actually happened..
Re: Bhajji’s ban lifted
Re: Bhajji's ban lifted
I am all for this posturing and brinkmanship...
but i feel we picked up the wrong incident and wrong guy...Harbhajan Singh is no angel on the field...he is pretty capable of doing the same
Re: Bhajji’s ban lifted
http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/ausvind/content/current/story/334196.html
more info about the ruling:
n a 22-page document that detailed the reasons for his decision, it emerged that Sachin Tendulkar’s word could have had a big role to play too. Unlike Mike Procter, who thought Tendulkar was not in a position to hear what was uttered, Hansen said “extensive video footage” establishes that Tendulkar “was within earshot and could have heard the words”.
Tendulkar said he heard Harbhajan “use a term in his native tongue “teri maa ki” which appears to be pronounced with an “n”. He said this is a term that sounds like “monkey” and could be misrepresented for it.”
** Symonds couldn’t recall** if he had heard Harbhajan use that particular Hindi abuse and accepted that it was a possibility. He also didn’t find favour with the judge with his explanation for abusing Harbhajan after he had patted Brett Lee on the back side. Symonds said he had objected because “a Test match is no place to be friendly with an opposition player” but Hansen dismissed that explanation (“If that is his view I hope it is not one shared by all international cricketers”).
Michael Clarke’s account was critical, considering that it did not coincide favourably with the rest. "It is not without significance that the Australian players maintain other than Mr Symonds that they did not hear any other words spoken, only the ones that are said to be of significance to this hearing," Hansen said.
** “This is a little surprising in the context where there was a reasonably prolonged heated exchange. Indeed Mr Clarke went so far as to say that he did not hear Mr Symonds say anything. Given Mr Symonds’ own acceptance that he initiated the exchange and was abusive towards Mr Singh, that is surprising. This failure to identify any other words could be because some of what they were hearing was not in English.”
**-symonds is not as innocent as i thought he was, the details of the hearing make him look like an idiot
“MR (VR) MANOHAR (Harbhajan’s defence lawyer): You had any objection to that patting on the back?
MR SYMONDS: Did I have an objection to it – my objection was that a Test match is no place to be friendly with an opposition player, is my objection.”
Then Justice Hansen goes on to make a telling observation: “If that is his view I hope it is not one shared by all international cricketers. It would be a sad day for cricket if it is.”
Moreover, Symonds had, as the Judge perceived, violated an agreement he had made with Harbhajan, after the India series, about how they deal with each other on the field.
Re: Bhajji's ban lifted
I am all for this posturing and brinkmanship...
but i feel we picked up the wrong incident and wrong guy...Harbhajan Singh is no angel on the field...he is pretty capable of doing the same
that's the question - when and how you choose to exercise the power. threatening to use your power if justice is not done is one thing, but when you come out and clearly state your definition of justice before the process is underway, you undermine the whole process. basically to the BCCI, ruling of racial abuse was unacceptable, evidence-vevidence jaaye bhaad mein. when there was talk of new audio evidence being available, BCCI's first reaction was to oppose this introduction of new evidence. rather than insist that harbhajan be found innocent, what they should have insisted on is that justice be served - ie harbhajan not be called guilty without proof (as proctor had done). if harbhajan was proven guilty based on evidence, BCCI should stand by the ruling.
interesting question here is who decides what is an acceptable gaali ? by all reports, symonds started this whole thing by calling bhajji a "f....ing h*%o" . why is that acceptable ? same thing with maa behen gaalis - for some folks (eg Zidane in the soccer finals), that may be totally offensive, as much as a racist term. ban all sledging and let us hold hands and sing along.
Re: Bhajji's ban lifted
^ very true. BCCi should not have postured in the way it did. They should have had some faith in the ICC officials in this matter. Insisting on not allowing audio evidence was completely unnecessary. This lead to the belief that Harbhajan did say those words and BCCI using its money power is arm twisting the ICC.
Re: Bhajji’s ban lifted
Its pretty long, but here is the full transcript of the appeal decision
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23133393-5001505,00.html
Re: Bhajji's ban lifted
wish Pakistan had taken a similar stance of threatning to cancel the trip and dealing as sturdily as BCCI did, in Oval fiasco where all the way from PCB Chief down to manager & captain, everyone seemed completely lost and conflicting statements were coming out of PCB camps every day with no unified stand taken to deal with the situation in a dignified manner.
Re: Bhajji’s ban lifted
ok genius, if evidence was available on audio then why did ICC/ABC didn’t use it in the first hearing where the penality was imposed on bhajji. what prompted the officials to bring this new compelling evidence into the 2nd hearing? 
Re: Bhajji’s ban lifted
Here is the video of what happened at the end of the over. It doesn’t show what Bhajji said though.
http://media.smh.com.au/?rid=35029
Here’s the full transcript:
Symonds walks up to Harbhajan at the end of an over.
Symonds: “Go and yell at your teammates … You called me monkey again.”
Matthew Hayden: “Twice. You’ve got a witness now champ.”
Hayden approaches Harbhajan.
Hayden: “That’s the last time.”
Harbhajan: “No listen he started it.”
Hayden: “Doesn’t matter mate, it’s racial vilification mate. It’s a **** word and you know it.”
Soon after, Michael Clarke approaches umpire Mark Benson.
Clarke: “It’s not the first time. He done it in India and got into strife. That’s the second time he’s done it.”
Captain Ricky Ponting walks up to Benson and gestures towards fellow umpire Steve Bucknor.
Bhajji doesn’t deny it but rather says he started it. Listen to it and judge it for yourself.
Re: Bhajji's ban lifted
^ This video and the transcript do not include what Bhajji actually said. This video and transcript starts right after that. So, its very inconclusive. No judgement can be made based on that. It does show that Tendu was within ear shot (or seemed like that).
Anyway, hopefully the issue is done and settled with. We all know money power of BCCI, and this issue highlighted it even more. Time to move on...?
Re: Bhajji’s ban lifted
U should ask the ICC. Well I can give a very simple answer. First hearing was with a match refree who has no law knowledge. Second was with a judge and he would look for at least circumstantial evidence.
Clearly Bhaji was provoked, being a hot tempered monkey I could just imagine how Bhaji would have reacted.
I am not for harbhajans ban. If I were match referee I would punish not only Bhaji but Symonds as well. He started it and he should be punished as well. But arm twisting on the part of BCCI should not have been done.