Cricket: Harbhajan ban lifted, fined 50% fee

India's firm stand paid off today when racism charges against off-spinner Harbhajan Singh were dropped and he was held guilty of a much lighter offence of using offensive language for which he was fined, escaping a three-Test ban that had been imposed on him earlier.

The ICC-appointed appeals commissioner Justin John Hansen heard for nearly five hours Harbhajan's appeal against the three-Test ban imposed on him by match referee Mike Procter during the Sydney Test earlier this month when he was accused of allegedly calling Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds 'a monkey', and imposed on the off-spinner a fine of 50% of his match fee ending the controversy that had threatened to split the cricket world.

The New Zealand High Court Judge's task was made easier by behind-the-scene efforts by the Australian cricket board and the BCCI to find a compromise in the shape of downgrading the charge against Harbhajan from racial abuse (section 3.3 of ICC Code of Conduct) to that of using language which is offensive and of seriously insulting nature (section 2.8). This compromise was reportedly presented to Hansen at the hearing.

A delighted BCCI, which had raised the stakes by announcing yesterday that the Indian team would be called back home if the racial charge was not withdrawn, promptly welcomed the Commissioner's verdict and declared that the rest of the Australia tour would go ahead.