BCCI sends show cause notice to Harbhajan

Temperamental spinner Harbhajan Singh was served a show cause notice by the BCCI for allegedly slapping S Sreesanth after an Indian Premier League (IPL) match in Mohali.
Harbhajan, who is the stand-in captain for the Mumbai Indians team in the absence of an injured Sachin Tendulkar, has been asked to respond by Monday, BCCI Chief Administrative Officer Ratnakar Shetty said.
The off-spinner allegedly slapped Kings XI Punjab's Sreesanth immediately after their match on Friday night.
The BCCI promptly served a show cause notice on Harbhajan asking him why disciplinary action should not be taken against him for his conduct in Mohali.
"At this point of time, we have issued a show cause notice. Harbhajan is a contracted player of BCCI. BCCI itself has a code of conduct for players. And BCCI Secretary Niranjan Shah has issued a show cause notice and he has to respond by Monday," Shetty said.
Both Harbhajan and Sreesanth tried to downplay the incident. The off-spinner said the issue has been 'sorted out' and the pacer remarked that Harbhajan is like his 'elder brother'.
"The BCCI's disciplinary committee will look into the issue and decide according to the rules of the BCCI," Shah said in a statement.
The BCCI is also awaiting match referee's report of Rajasthan Royals and Hyderabad Deccan Chargers in which some words were exchanged between Shahid Afridi and Shane Warne.
"We are waiting for match referee's report and investigation is also going on but we want to pass the message that indiscipline will not be tolerated in the IPL tournaments which we want to make world class," Shah added.
Although Sreesanth is now trying to brush aside the matter but the pacer's uncontrollable tears after the match had initially triggered off the furore.
Kings XI captain Yuvraj Singh also confirmed that an 'ugly and unacceptable' incident did take place after the match and indicated that the team would lodge an official complaint with match referee Farokh Engineer.
"This is really an ugly incident. You do not want to see such things off the field specially after such a win. I am pretty upset at what has happened. This is totally unacceptable," he said.
Harbhajan, who is often embroiled in on-field furors with the racial row with Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds being his last brush with controversy before this, has sought to steer away from any tough-talking this time.
"A lot of things happen in a family. We are part of one family. I think a lot of things which are coming out in the media, whatever have happened we have sorted out all, everything is fine now," Harbhajan said before leaving for Mumbai with his team on Saturday morning.
Sreesanth, on his part, also said everything was 'normal' between him and Harbhajan.
"Everything is normal, there is nothing between us," he said.
Harbhajan and Sreesanth may be trying to downplay the incident but IPL Chairman Lalit Modi has termed it a 'serious matter' and was not good for the Twenty20 tournament.
But Modi said the IPL committee would wait for an official report on the matter before deciding about their next action in the issue.
"It looks like a serious matter the way it's being shown on television channels but I can't say anything now. In any tournament it should not happen, it's unfortunate what happened yesterday," Modi said.
"The incident in itself is sketchy. There is no clear evidence at this moment, there are different versions about what may have happened. But at the end of the day we have to take cognizance of the fact that happened on the field. So we are waiting for the match referee and umpire's report only after which our committee will take a decision. The tournament is being played under the ICC guidelines, besides there are also tournament guidelines for the players."
IPL Governing Council member I S Bindra said the code of conduct laid by the International Cricket Council would be applicable on Harbhajan.
"As (IPL Chairman Lalit) Modi said the process has been put in place. But it is unfortunate and an ICC code of conduct will be applicable," Bindra said.
Bindra, however, refused to comment on the issue until an inquiry found out what exactly happened between the two players on Friday night.
"You were all there but I can say that only inquiry will find out what exactly happened. For anyone to comment at this stage is not right. The code of conduct has certain procedures which will be gone through. Once the process is completed, the action will follow," he said.
"At this moment, the process is sacrosanct which will be followed," he added.
Asked if there would be any time-limit to resolve the issue, the former BCCI President said, "it is a semi-judicial process, you cannot say when it will finish. The process has to run its course, we can't lay down time limit".
On the possibility of banning Harbhajan, who has developed a knack for courting controversies, Bindra said, "if that is the recommendation, IPL Governing Council will take decision according to the findings".
Bindra advised the players to strictly follow the 'spirit of cricket'.