India
files appeal with ICC; asks team not to
leave Sydney
SYDNEY/NEW DELHI, Jan 7: Raising the
stakes, a furious BCCI today filed an
appeal with the ICC against the
three-match ban slapped on off-spinner
Harbhajan Singh and asked the Indian team
to stay put in Sydney as part of pressure
tactics to get its case heard.
Angry over
the ban and calling it "unfair and
unacceptable", an emergency meeting
of the board decided to fight out the
issue with the Australians and the
umpires who had done India in the second
Test which went in favour of the home
team.
Arun
Jaitley, a senior board office-bearer and
a well-known lawyer drafted the complaint
against match referee Mike Procter’s
ban decision on the ground Harbhajan had
racially abused Andrew Symonds and filed
it with the international body within 24
hours of the decision as required under
rules.
Parellelly
it asked the Indian team to stay put in
Sydney and not go to Canberra where a
two-day practice match is scheduled from
Thursday.
After the
late night punishment handed out by
Procter, a furious BCCI President Sharad
Pawar called an emergency meeting at his
residence in Delhi this morning where all
options including pulling out of the
series were said to have been considered.
At the
meeting, it was decided to appeal against
Procter’s order and ask the ICC to
suspend the order till the final disposal
of the appeal.
Pawar, who
spoke to captain Anil Kumble and team
manager Chetan Chauhan, said he has
instructed the team not to leave Sydney
until further directions. "We expect
some decision by tomorrow," he told
reporters.
Describing
the ban on Harbhajan as "unfair and
unacceptable", the BCCI made it
clear that it will fight the "false
slur" cast on the ace spinner. It
said India’s national committment
was against racism and was commmitted to
protecting the country’s fair name.
There were
also reports that Sachin Tendulkar, who
had given evidence for Harbhajan in the
hearing yesterday, is said to have sent a
SMS to Pawar, saying the bowler was
innocent and he was sure about it. He is
believed to have said that the board
should back the team in this hour of
crisis and suggested that they should not
play in Canberra if the ban is not
lifted.
The
baggage of the team members which was
loaded into the bus was taken out and
back to their hotel rooms after the BCCI
asked the team not to go to Canberra.
The BCCI
also filed another complaint with the ICC
against umpire Steve Bucknor, who had
given a number of decisions against the
Indian team, that he should not be
allowed to officiate in the next Test in
Perth.
The ICC
confirmed that it had received both the
appeals against Harbhajan punishment and
against umpire Bucknor. Earlier, it had
maintained that as of now that Bucknor
would do duty in Perth.
The BCCI
has called an emergency working committee
meeting tomorrow in New Delhi to decide
the future course of action.
The BCCI
said it will await the decision of the
ICC before taking a final decision on the
issue.
Meanwhile,
the beleaguered Indian cricket team got
support from unexpected quarters with the
Australian media terming the behaviour of
their own players as
"unacceptable" and calling the
standard of umpiring as poor which left a
bitter taste in the mouth.
In an
unexpected show of solidarity, the
Australian media rallied behind the
Indian team, saying poor umpiring proved
to be their nemesis and the least they
deserved was a draw.
Lambasting
the members of the Australian side for
their rude behaviour, Peter Roebuck, the
former Somerset captain who is based in
Sydney, singled out Ponting and said the
captain must be sacked.
"If
Cricket Australia cares a fig for the
tattered reputation of our national team
in our national sport, it will not for a
moment longer tolerate the sort of
arrogant and abrasive conduct, seen from
the captain and his senior players over
the past few days," he said.
Australia
should immediately sack its arrogant and
abrasive captain Ricky Ponting and
it’s a surprise that India has not
called off the tour and gone back home,
said an aghast Peter Roebuck.
"Beyond
comparison it was the ugliest performance
put up by an Australian side for 20
years," he wrote in his column for
‘Sydney Morning Herald’.
"The
only surprising part of it is that the
Indians have not packed their bags and
gone home. There is no justice for them
in this country, nor any manners,"
he observed.
He said
the lack of sportsmanship among the
Australians hurt their young fans and
former players alike.
"Pained
past players rang to express their
disgust. It was a wretched and
ill-mannered display and not to be
endured from any side, let alone an
international outfit representing a proud
sporting nation," Roebuck wrote.
Former
Australia captain Steve Waugh, said the
already boiling situation has the
potential to affect the relationship
between the two countries and urged the
captains and the players to get together
and work out a solution.
"Perhaps
a better outcome may have been for both
captains, coaches and named players to
get together at the end of the day’s
play and work out a solution before they
went past the point of no return - which
now has the potential to affect relations
between both countries," Waugh wrote
in Sydney’s Daily Telegraph.
Waugh,
however, supported the home team for the
way they play their cricket as it is part
of Australian culture.
"Teams
playing against Australia fail to
understand that banter, gamesmanship,
sledging or whatever anyone would like to
call it is just the way Australian kids
joust and play in the schoolyard and
backyards," Waugh wrote.
He called
the match "one of the great games of
the modern era." (PTI)
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