Harbhajan hearing to go on till late night
Sydney (PTI): The hearing of the racial abuse charge levelled against Harbhajan Singh at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) is likely to go on till late into the night with both teams being subjected to gruelling interrogation by ICC Match Referee Mike Procter.
The hearing, attended by reputed British lawyer Nigel Peters, is likely to finish by Local Time 0200 hours on Monday morning (2030 hours IST on Sunday night).
Australians were the first to present themselves for the hearing which began at around 1930 hours local time. Present for the Australian defence were skipper Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden, Michael Clarke and Andrew Symonds, along with team manager Steve Bernard.
After the Australians had finished, the Indians began their defence in front of the authorities. Both the sides were being cross examined.
Indians are being represented by Harbhajan Singh, Sachin Tendulkar and skipper Anil Kumble, besides team manager Chetan Chauhan.
It is unlikely that match referee Mike Procter would take any decision right away as the matter is too complicated to be decided outright.
However, the word floating around at the SCG was that Australians have some substantial basis for levelling the charge against Harbhajan.
Australians, it is learnt, believe that Harbhajan called Andrew Symonds "monkey" which the latter is prone to treat as a racist comment.
The Australians viewpoint is that Harbhajan had committed the same "offence" when they were touring India in October last year.
Anil Kumble, in the meeting of the two captains, so suggest the Australians, had assured the hosts that no offensive language would be used in the present series.
Harbhajan has been charged under rule 3.3 of the ICC's Code of Conduct that deals with using language or gestures that insults a person on the basis of race, religion, colour, descent or national or ethnic origin.
If found guilty Harbhajan could be banned for two to four Tests or four to eight one-dayers. But the off-spinner has vehemently denied saying anything racial during the altercation.
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