"The referee studied video tapes of the incident and found the assault
by Harbhajan was totally unprovoked. The footage exactly showed that
Harbhajan went down the line, wishing all the players, shaking hands
with a few players," said Lalit Modi, the commissioner of the IPL who
is also a vice-president of the BCCI. "Sreesanth was the third player
that he met. Instead of shaking his hand he actually slapped him and
continued down the line, shaking hands with the other players."
Sreesanth was let off with a warning after video evidence showed
Harbhajan slapped him without any provocation. Where as Harbhajan Singh was slapped a ban of 11 to 13 IPL games. Additionally, BCCI will be taking its on action against the spinner. The duo embraced at the
end of the hearing after Harbhajan offered an apology in front of the
cameras.
I hope, Bhajji will concentrate more on his bowling than these kind of incidences.
Harbhajan Singh has been temporarily suspended from the Indian Premier
League following his spat with Sreesanth at the end of the
Mumbai-Punjab game in Mohali on Friday. His suspension, based on new
video evidence, is pending an inquiry on Monday into the incident,
which means he will not be able to play Mumbai's home match against the
Deccan Chargers on Sunday.
"Based on prima facie video evidence, as seen
and reviewed by the match adjudicator and referee Farokh Engineer from
the tapes provided by Sony & TWI, a decision has been reached to
suspend Harbhajan pending the inquiry into the incident on Monday,
April 28," Lalit Modi, chairman and commissioner of IPL, said.
Virender Sehwag decimated the Deccan Chargers with a violent unbeaten
94 as Delhi Daredevils cantered to an easy nine-wicket win in the IPL on Tuesday.
Rohit Sharma's 36-ball 66 had
propped up the Deccan Chargers to a modest 142 for eight after the
hosts were reduced to 60 for five at one stage.
But with
skipper Sehwag on fire, Delhi Daredevils overwhelmed the target in 13
overs losing just one wicket for their second victory in a row.
Sehwag's 41-ball blitzkrieg of 94 not out included 10 hits to the fence, besides six towering sixes.
IPL is less than a week old and has started facing early fan problems. May be the fans are burnt out by hectic schedule of the tournament. Some of the interesting issues faced by this budding league are:
Rajasthan slash ticket rates : It was difficult for the authorities in Jaipur to fill up the 30,000
seats at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium and resorted to slashing the ticket
rates, Mumbai Mirror reported.
Police demand : The Rajasthan Police demanded Rs 80,00,000 (approx US$ 200,000) for
providing security for the first match against Kings XI Punjab. This is obvious since it was not a charity match. IPL's main objective is to make money and hence why should police provide free protection
No full house at Chennai :
Despite the presence of the most expensive player in the IPL, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the Chennai Super Kings managed to sell only 15,000 tickets out of a full house of 38,000 reported PTI.
West Indies players to return : in time for West Indies' series against Australia in May.
