Speed(s) to admit ICC blunder
International Cricket Council chief Malcolm Speed said Thursday it
accepted the blame for the administrative blunder that enabled Indian
spinner Harbhajan Singh to escape a stiffer penalty in his racial abuse
case.
Harbhajan's three-Test suspension for allegedly racially abusing
Australian Andrew Symonds during the contentious second Test in Sydney
was overturned at a code of conduct appeals hearing in Adelaide on
Tuesday.
At the hearing, the charge was downgraded to a level two charge of
using abusive language and Harbhajan subsequently pleaded guilty, with
appeals commisioner Justice John Hansen fining the spinner half of his
match fee.
However, Hansen then revealed he would have handed out a stiffer
penalty, including a possible suspension, had he been aware of
Harbhajan's full record.
Hansen was only informed of one prior misdemeanour by the spinner,
with three other previous offences overlooked by the ICC, including a
one-match suspended sentence for showing dissent to an umpire in 2001.
Speed issued a written statement on Thursday that acknowledged the
ICC had been at fault.
"It is very unfortunate that human error led to Justice Hansen not
having the full history of Harbhajan's previous Code of Conduct breaches
and the ICC accepts responsibility for this mistake," Speed said.
Hansen said the suspended sentence did not show up in the ICC records
because the incident was logged under another player's name, while the
other two priors were omitted because of a database issue and human
error.
He said on Wednesday that Harbhajan had been very fortunate and
admitted he considered increasing the penalty when informed of the
oversight.
"Singh can feel fortunate he has reaped the benefit of these database
and human errors," he said.
In making his statement, Speed also took the opportunity to warn
players to lift their standards of behaviour.
"One thing that has come out of this is the need for players to
review their on-field behaviour," Speed said. "In this case, it is clear
that Harbhajan verbally abused an opponent having been provoked to do so
by that opponent.
"This is not acceptable behaviour on the cricket field.
"I expect all players to use this as a wake-up call that on-field
behaviour must improve." SYDNEY, Thursday, AFP
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