India must not bow to kangaroo court

NEW DELHI: Oval, 2006: Umpire Darrell Hair accuses Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul Haq of cheating. The Pakistan team refuses to take the field the next day, and the match referee awards the test to England, without dwelling on whether the Pakistan team had a genuine grievance.

Sydney, 2008: Harbhajan Singh is accused of racially abusing Andrew Symonds based on the claim of a few Australian cricketers. The umpires have not heard it and cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar vouches that Bhajji did not utter anything racist. However, the match referee hands out a 3-match suspension to him, along with a label for life.

What is common between the two events? A man called Michael John Procter, better known as Mike Procter. Was it just a coincidence that he happened to be the unfair judge on both occasions? Was it also a coincidence that Procter happened to be one of the great South African players whose international cricketing career was cut short by his country’s apartheid regime, after it disallowed ‘coloured’ Basil D’Oliveira from playing in a test match against South Africa?

May be, these are too many coincidences. But for the Indian cricket team Down Under, or for millions of its fans spread to the rest of the world, it may not seem so.

Known for playing along, when pressure from the media and public gets unbearable, only to pipe down quietly later, the Board of Control for Cricket in India has promised to get justice for its team and Harbhajan, this time.

BCCI on Monday 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.

Terming Procter’s decision as “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.

Senior Board office-bearer Arun Jaitley drafted a complaint and filed it with the international body within 24 hours of the decision as required under rules.

BCCI has vowed to fight the slur cast on Harbhajan. It said India’s national commitment was against racism and it was committed to protecting the country’s fair name.

Sachin Tendulkar, who had given evidence for Harbhajan in the hearing on Sunday, is said to have sent an SMS to Pawar, saying that he was sure that Harbhajan was innocent. 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.

So, it takes a Sachin to make a Pawar act. What happens next? Probably, the suspension will be suspended and the series allowed to continue. But it’s not the 3-match suspension that matters. Harbhajan may miss more tests because of fitness problems in future. But here is an Indian being labelled a racist, without incontrovertible evidence admissible in a court of law. Did Procter get carried away by the number of kangaroos hopping around in Australia?

BCCI should have the gumption to ask its cricketers to return home. Reneging from the contract will cost money. But it’s time BCCI realised that there is more to cricket than just money.

Mr Sharad Pawar was once expelled from his party because he could not withstand the ‘shame of being governed by a foreign-born prime minister’. But when he was literally pushed around by winning captain Ricky Ponting, at a prize-distribution ceremony, he just stood there and grinned. Don’t be surprised if BCCI decides to grin and bear it, once again, after all the sound and fury.