Agencies
New Delhi, Apr 27:
With Match Referee Farokh Engineer pledging that, "We are not going to sweep things under the carpet", temperamental off-spinner Harbhajan Singh will have his day of reckoning on Monday when he appears at a disciplinary hearing to explain his slapping Indian teammate S Sreesanth, an offence for which he could get a minimum punishment of a suspension for five Test or 10 ODI matches.
Harbhajan, who slapped Sreesanth at the end of the Indian Premier League (IPL) match at Mohali on Friday, would appear before Engineer, former India wicket-keeper, at 1 pm in New Delhi and has already been suspended on the basis of the video footage of the incident. He has been served a show cause notice and asked to explain his behaviour.
"From the Mumbai Indians, (coach) Lalchand Rajput will be specifically present at the hearing as asked by the adjudicator. Harbhajan Singh, his Vice Captain and Team Manager will also be present," the organisers said in a statement.
"From the King's XI Punjab - complainant Neil Maxwell, Yuvraj Singh the captain and S Sreesanth will be present."
Both the side can also bring in other witnesses, if they wish, the statement read.
IPL Chairman and Commissioner Lalit Modi will also be present on the occasion. Although Harbhajan is facing a very serious charge, behind-the-scene efforts are being made to ensure that he gets as light a punishment as possible.
Immediately after the slapping incident, efforts were made to bury it. Even Sreesanth said that it was a "hand shake on the wrong side" and an arrogant Harbhajan, who initially refused to even talk about it, finally admitted that he had "pushed" the Keralite which had "hurt" him.
Meanwhile, Engineer has already made it clear that the inquiry would be conducted as per the ICC Code of Conduct and a decision will be taken in the interest of the game.
As per the ICC Code of Conduct, slapping a fellow player constitutes a level 4 offence and it could lead even to a life ban or a minimum ban of five Tests to 10 ODIs.
Two of India's most volatile cricketers figured in the row, which apparently started after Sreesanth said "hard luck" to Harbhajan, who was in foul mood following the Mumbai team's third successive loss.
Shaun Pollock to lead Mumbai Indians
New Delhi, Apr 27:
Shaun Pollock has been appointed as the Mumbai Indians captain for their match against Deccan Chargers on Sunday in the IPL.
Shaun Pollock's appointment as Mumbai Indians captain came after Harbhajan Singh was temporarily suspended on Saturday by the match referee Farokh Engineer, as the off spinner allegedly slapped Kings XI pacer S Sreesanth on Friday night after his side lost their third match in a row.
Mumbai opened their campaign at the Wankhede Stadium against Bangalore's Royal Challengers came a cropper and then missed a victory over Chennai in the latter's backyard before being embarrassed by the Punjab King's XI at Mohali on Friday night.
In batting, the Mumbai top-order, with Sanath Jayasuriya heading it, has not fired in unison and this has resulted in the team's bottom order trying to salvage the situation, but to no avail.
The bowlers too have not come up to scratch with only Shaun Pollock, to some extent, and the under-scrutiny Harbhajan looking capable of stemming the run-glut from the opposition ranks.
With Deccan Chargers also not able to win a point still, both the teams would be eager to put it across one another and kick-start their tepid campaign under lights at cricket's state-of-the-art stadium in the satellite township of Navi Mumbai, just across the harbour.
Hyderabad are struggling to gel as a team with retired Australian great Adam Gilchrist yet to provide value for the huge amount of money invested in him by the team owners Deccan Chronicle.
Captain VVS Laxman has also not yet shown that the national selectors were wrong in repeatedly ignoring his claims in the shorter forms of the game.
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