New Delhi, Apr 29: Just a day after temperamental spinner Harbhajan Singh was banned for slapping Mohali speedster S Sreesanth after an IPL match between Kings XI Punjab and Mumbai Indians, South Africa’s coach Mickey Arthur has revealed that the behaviour of both Harbhajan and Sreesanth had come under the scanner during the just concluded India-South Africa series.

Arthur told a cricket website that Harbhajan was accused of abusing Proteas batsman Ashwel Prince during the third Test at Kanpur, for which the offie apologized later while Sreesanth had to face a lot of criticism after he went after AB de Villiers.

Reacting to the IPL incident, Arthur said, "when there are two such volatile players on the field, anything can happen."

Harbhajan was banned on Monday from playing 11 IPL matches after an inquiry committee headed by match referee Farokh Engineer found him guilty of slapping Sreesanth. A BCCI panel is looking into the incident separately and is expected to come out with its judgment soon.

"At the end of the day, we are not squealers. We strongly believe that what happens on the field stays on it. Besides, we were very happy with the general spirit in which the series was played in, and we left with very pleasant memories of the tour, especially the cricket that was played", Arthur added.

Reacting to what happened at Kanpur, Arthur said, "There was an incident in Kanpur. There was a hearing by the match referee (Roshan Mahanama) during which Harbhajan apologised to Prince. It was settled and we were happy with the apology. I am not 100 per cent sure what was said. But Ashwell felt very strongly about it at that time and that`s why we took it up".

"Sreesanth was just Sreesanth. Perhaps our players lost a lot of respect for him on the tour. He constantly abused AB de Villiers and it was very personal. But considering the general spirit in which the series was played, we didn`t feel strongly enough to complain," he said.