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There is no doubt the stand-in captain of the Mumbai Indians needed to be punished for hitting Sreesanth. Whatever the provocation, whatever the pressure, this was not on. It went too far.

Yet, four things need to be pointed out.

First, just because Harbhajan slapped Sreesanth doesn’t also mean that he called Andrew Symonds a monkey. It does not necessarily prove Sachin Tendulkar was lying when he gave evidence in Harbhajan’s favour in Australia. There is no correlation. Let us not get carried away.

Second, Sreesanth’s guilt may be less recognisable but he surely deserves a strong reprimand as well. He has been obnoxious throughout the IPL. He has sledged, abused and provoked rival players, even junior batsmen and plain tyros. It could be understood if he were resorting to verbal warfare when faced with a batsman who had reached 95 off 35 balls. Sreesanth, however, has more often than not begun the battle.

Third, even if one were to be extraordinarily charitable and exclude the recent tour of Australia and explain it as a case of a volatile cricketer being targeted by a clever opposition, the fact is Harbhajan is not the best behaved sportsman in the world. Sreesanth hasn’t slapped anyone yet but, overall, he’s even worse.

Nevertheless, each time this is brought up, it is explained away with some pop sociology or similar claptrap: “This is the new, aggressive India”; “For years, we have suffered, now we will give it back”; “These are boys from small towns, middle India – they don’t care for reputations, they are not deferential to the white man”.

I once brought up Sreesanth’s behaviour on a television programme and suggested somebody have a chat with him. It was instantly apparent that almost everyone in the studio disagreed with me. Ajay Jadeja, a fellow guest on the show, jumped to the fast bowler’s defence and said he was absolutely fine and it would be unfair to curb his natural instincts.

Agreed, bad behaviour is as old as cricket. Some of what the Australians did under Ian Chappell – and seem to be doing now under Ricky Ponting – cannot be condoned. There is a crucial difference between playing hard and playing dirty.

If Indian cricketers – “new”, “aggressive”, “super-confident”: choose your adjective – want to give it back when assailed or want to occasionally needle a batsman as he walks to the crease, I have no problem with that. There is an ocean that separates such acceptable gamesmanship from plain boorishness. Waving his bat, exercising his pelvic muscles mid-pitch, screaming and shouting, bearing his teeth, grimacing menacingly without reason, Sreesanth is the most visible face of this cricket boor; at least on television. The face, let us accept, is ugly.

Precedent can justify anything, and nothing. Kepler Wessels hit Kapil Dev in the shin in the early 1990s, John Snow knocked down Sunil Gavaskar in the early 1970s. Neither was right and both should still be embarrassed. Harbhajan and Sreesanth are no better, no worse. There are moral absolutes on the cricket field. The state of Indian society and its evolutionary juncture cannot change those absolutes.

Fourth, while Harbhajan is going to be sitting at home for the rest of the IPL and will forfeit his millions as well, it is my guess that Sreesanth has lost more in the long run. As Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s column in the Hindustan Times this [April 28] morning suggests, the Indian dressing room is less likely to take a clear-cut, good-bad binary position on the unseemly business. To the rest of the Indian squad, there need not be one obvious villain and one obvious victim.

My hunch is Sreesanth will face a few barbs for, to use a friend’s phrase, “ratting” on a colleague and breaking club rules. This is not a value judgment; it is a cold, cynical assessment. By making a public scene, playing the wronged guy, crying on camera, blaming it on his “fever in the morning”, Sreesanth has betrayed a streak for exhibitionism and a low emotional quotient.

On television, it works in his favour. In the Indian team bus, it could be his Achilles’ heel.

I kept quiet for a long time like many other Indians expressing their opinion in private, but I cannot help express my disgust at current handling of IPL and the blatant commercialization that has been given precedence over the basic ethos of the game.

Let me clarify that I am not a ex-cricket player and I do not fall into that 40 plus people reminiscing about the good old days. I have grown feasting on the heroics of Tendiya, Jam and Dada..!! I should also clarify that T20 format of the game is positive and Indian Board taking the lead here filled me with lot of pride, but the way I have seen things pan out, I feel ashamed to even discuss it with my friends in Australia or England.

To list my grouse – One, the players have not been disciplined as seen in the latest Bhajji-Sri incident and the monetary stakes have sold out the spirit of the game; Two, the use of foreign cheerleaders to entertain the crowd belittles the intellect and self respect of Indian public!

Ah, at last a balanced view of the whole thing. If one reads Aussie newspapers (generally yellow in nature) one sees a monster painted out of Indian players these days, with a victim status for Aussies!

It truly beggars belief. I have always felt that both these blokes (who have a poor behavior record) should have been seriously warned and counselled after the Aussie tour independant of guilt in that encounter Down Under. BCCI unfortunately is a reactive and not a proactive organization.

For the Aussie adminstrators however, no amount of punishment will be enough. One only needs to see how Mr. Speed is deified and given the uber victim status when his record shows a chequered history. As we now know, he covered up Aussie involvement in match fixing while other Boards were giving heavy punishment.

This is not to forgive the ICC for the way they engineered his ouster as it sets a very bad precedent. The organization needs wholesale cleaning to restore credibility.

Ashok, I don’t think anyone in their right minds would assume Bhajji had racially abused Symonds just because he slapped Sreesanth, but the fact is Bhajji has earned the dislike of many people down the years, and they will keep having a go at him as long as he gives them chances to do so. This is inevitable.

I completely agree with your next three points, but they do seem more like an exercise in spleen-venting rather than a structured argument. Still, I love a good rant! Here is my summary of them:

* Sreesanth is a bad boy. He needs a spanking like Bhajji.

* Sreesanth is really a bad boy. He’s even worse than Bhajji. People who don’t think he’s a bad boy are being silly.

* Sreesanth is such a bad boy even his friends won’t speak to him anymore. Just you wait!

Personally I can’t find it in me to dislike Sreesanth, I just get stunned by the sight of those massive nostrils. Peter Jackson ought to have hired him to play an orc – he would have saved money on make-up and CGI.

Fairly middling, mediocre assessment of the events.

Succinctly - Sreesanth is a melodramatic primadonna and Harbhajan is a lugubrious little turd. The salient point however, is that both have excellent bowling abilities - ameliorated by their obnoxious on field personalities.

Sreesanth's recent tour to Australia proved that he is emasculated as a bowler - if he can't rev it up and act like a clown.

But who really cares? Nobody wants all their sports stars to be urbane, robotic yes men with Oxford elocution and anal retention. There's enough Dravids and Tendulkars and Laxmen to fill a large cemetry.

Indians go to ridiculous lengths to preserve this illusion of a nation populated by gentle, well mannered, brown skinned English gentlemen, who cry at the first hint of harsh words and a little physical confrontation.

Yes that's the perfect profile to get a Green Card - but the best bowlers have all had an ugly edge.

Reinstate Bhaji & stop crying when someone calls you Oedipus Raja

You are right, of course. This act is not evidence of guilt in Austrtalia. This act is, howver, potentially a result of India's complete refusal to contemplate the possibility of guilt. Harbhajan has been a protected figure, despite overwhelming evidence to suggest he is less than sportsmanlike. The BCCI refused to allow consideration of their people, and bullied the ICC into softfooting the Symonds case and letting him off.

Whether you like the Australian's behaviour, it never crosses the laws of the game. Harbajhan seems to lack the intelligence and self control to do the same. He is clumsy and hot-headed adn the BCCI should have brought both he and Sreesanth into line years ago. They fostered this attitude and now MUST act.

This is not the fault of Australia's aggressive cricket. This is the fault of arrogance, both of the players themselves and the BCCI for permitting not acting sooner.

Wow! On one side the author cautions against presuming Bhajji name calling Symmonds. On the other hand, he has passed SreeSanth's guilt. I'm confused, what is the main problem? Sree's bad face? How racist can you get?
And who has lower emotional quotient? The person who slapped or the one who restrained himself from slapping? Last time I saw both, SreeSanth has more muscles on his body. I would definitely cry if a person I consider a close friend comes and slaps me for no reason.

And lets be cold and cynical, in my view its quite apparent that Bhajji did name call Symmo. And last time I checked no international cricketer at SreeSanth's sledging receiving end has complained about name calling. Also, after the pelvic thursts, Sree and Nel were seen as best friends that evening.

Another difference: Sree is known to be one of the most soft-spoken guys outside ground. Can you say that about Bhajji?

Having watched Harbhajan's behaviour on the field for quite a few years,I am really surprised that there are people who still think he did not call Symonds "monkey'.

That BCCI is the real bully in cricket today is an open secret.And justifying this bullying by mentioning the Aussies' behaviour in the past is the most shameless act.And when it is done by a cricketing icon who has the privilege of the commentry box,lay men can not be blamed for being biased.Hayden was more than correct in calling Bhajji "obnoxious weed",and if we still had any doubt whether the tag sits well on him,Bhajji himsself saw to it that it does.

BCCI has a golden opportunity here to show to the world that it knows how to function as a responsible world body.It was bad to leave Bhajji without any punishment in the "monkey" incident.It will be worse if the ICC code of conduct is not followed here.No one is indispensible.The game must survive it.India can play without Bhajji,and even win.

I think Bhajji's ban for entire IPL is a bit harsh. I'm not saying that turbanator did the right thing, but also Farokh Engineer & Co who made the decision should have looked at the entire sequence of events during the match, as MS D said yesterday. Everbody knows that Sree is no saint.

Both Bhajji & Sree should have been banned for 3 games & given some counselling. Bhajji wouldn't have slapped him just like that, obviously Sree would have provoked his anger somewhere down the line. There is no smoke without a fire.

Also, we must foresee what damage it will cause Indian cricket. Both are match winning players & as Sanjay Manjrekar said, both need serious counselling sessions.Also Mr. Engineer was in the same boat 30 odd years ago with Abid Ali, but was spared as there was no video footage. It's kind of similar to the one, where Azhar & Jadeja, get life bans from cricket, while Herschelle gibbs & Mark Waugh etc could still play their cricket, for the same offence.

Both Bhajji and Sreesanth need to be taken to task. While there is no excuse for Bhajji slapping sreesanth, no one believes that there was no provocation. Just look at the sequence,

Mumbai Indians led by Bhajji have already lost 2 matches. Bhajji is under pressure and in the 3 rd match, the going was quite bad. Sreesanth needles Khote and does enough to generate heat. Bhajji seething inside approaches him and gets a patronising " Hard luck",snaps and slaps.

Sardar deserves the punishment, behaved like a kid.

Does Sreesanth deserve this let off, not at all. Honestly, it is a bit of surprise that he has escaped being hit earlier by one the many players

Could have easily been Nel or could have been Vaughan or could have been Hayden or Symonds or could have been Kaif or Khote

There will be enough animosity in the dressing room and he may in the long run get the royal ditch. Dhoni may not touch him with a barge pole

You fail to note that Harbhajan was initially prepared to lie to downplay the charge that he slapped Sreesanth.

He was quoted as having told CNN-IBN television: "At the end of the match, I did push him, which might have hurt him. He is like a younger brother, he respects me as an elder brother. We talked, I said I'm really sorry. It's all over, nothing happened between us."

Funny how a slap became a push and no doubt as he became aware that it had all been caught on film it swapped back to a slap with his guilty plea.

Haribhajan is a good bowler but he is a hot head who has not been controlled by the Indian cricket board. He lied in this case trying to protect himself. It reflects on his character and his truth as a witness.

I think our currently popular Indian cricketers are endowed with neither any cricket skills nor any human decency. They are wrapped in colorful bubbles only to burst out before even reaching a safer altitude. The likes of Dravid or a Laxman should get out of this 20/20 format if they are serious about maintaining their hard earned iconic image and global recognition. Sooner they do it better it is for them and for their admirers! Get out and take care of your families guys!

I would rather prefer to lose a game for India without the goofy characters like Bhajji or Sreeshanth. You need to have a killer instinct for the game you are playing and not for the players who are playing the game.

Our cricket boys have proven themselves to be the worst liers, imitators and egotists that you can find. The likes of Pataudi, Prasanna, Umrigar, Borde, or a Contractor are an extinct breed in our current national teams. Our ugliness which was confined within our shores is now all over the globe!!

Most of our "new Brand" indian cricketers has completely got it wrong. They are totally confused between the on field aggresion and playing dirty. It's very disheartening to see very few cricketers trying to emulate the attitude and aggression of Adam Gilgrist and rather try to be an "Andre Nel" kind of personality. I sincerely feel that the spirit of this game is getting lost somewhere and what surprises me more is that senior guys like Lalchand Rajput are trying to mask this.

It doesn't matter if Bhajji and Shree are the nicest people off the field and they have to act like more responsible models on the field.

I would like to see both of them get back to the field and play their heart out and not talk or abuse their heart out!! I am sure guys like Hayden and Symonds are laughing their way to glory now....such a shame!!

The worst had to be happen but let's hope for the better to come in the future. Let sanity prevail!!

It seems Ashok Malik is biased. He started with soft interpretation of the slap by Harbajan on Sreesanth.
He is defending Harbajan to extreme extent.
To Ashok, Slaping in public is not a crime ?
But crying in public is sin and a shame and having low EQ. Come on man, I will slap in public , ,how you feel it and tell me.

Don't defend a criminal how high flying he is .
They are paid millions for playing and be well behaved in public . This slapper shouldnot represent India any more . Not the Sree.

If he is hot blooded hot headed young warriuon ask him to join the army and go to barrack , not the cricket field to slap your fellow plyers.

don't be judgemental...and you better have word with your best friend and a look in the mirror before have a word about some one else face. ugly may become worst .

In Ausralia Sachin saved him , Now Sachin injured.We will wait and see who will save him now .

Dude you lost me there. You start your column by asking everyone not to assume Harbhajan did not uter racial slur to Symonds. Whatever Bhaji did upto this point is usless to bring on the table.

Then you pin pointed everything that Sreesanth did in his short career.

Gotta keep your logic consistent. If you want ppl to read your blog.

Other point I wanna make is...by slapping Sreesanth...Bhaji has done what some cricket viewers couldnt do...slap Sreesanth that is.

I hope something good will come out of this incident...maybe some "elders" of indian cricket will have a chit chat with Sree and Bhaji and other young indian players to behave like decent ppl on cricket field.

They dont want idiots like Shoaib Akhtar in their team. I am afraid if nothing is done then in 12 - 18 months we will see more than two Shoaib Akhtar in Indian team.

All show and garbage talent.

M Dhoni is happened to be successful in indian cricket due to successful individuals like Sachin , Dravid, Kumble and Gangulies .

If look at the standard of his wicket keeping and number of dropped catches he shouldnot be continued in Indian team . Recently his batting too feeling the pressure. He is diclaring Sree is not a saint too and hinting sree may not not be in Indian dressing room for too long.

this bunch of people are shooting for ads during the India-South Africa test series, insteadd of practising .What commitment they have towards India and Indian cricket rather that selfish accumulation of wealth .

For example , Christaino Ronlado won Player of the year award in Engilsh premier leauge. Yesterday He never turned up to collect the prize himself , He was practising in the field to face Barcelona in the Champions leauge return semi final.This iscommitment by a player towards himself and his team.

Any one from Indian team will do that.They prefer glamour and money

It was so embarassing to watch Sreesanth bowling. While we say that our boys are giving it back, I am yet to recall a bowler who behaves like a petulant child after every ball. One incident, the batsman defensively putting up his bat in front of him when Sreesanth threatened to throw the ball at the wicket after an attempted run, stays in memory.

Sreesanth should be disciplined fairly early in his career, he should be taking more time in thinking the batsman out and planning his next ball than talking to himself like a madman to cool himself down.

All this, ofcourse, does not excuse Bhajji's slap. An "elder brother" would have called Sree aside and advised him and given him a nice talking to. All people should have their own standards for their own conduct. They should not view themselves from other people's lenses. Any self-respecting sportsman would have reigned in his emotions and Bhajji was found wanting. This leads me to believe that he may have lied to save himself at Sydney.

First person who needs counseling is you. Sreesanth after Vaughan incident has been calm,can u tell me one controversial incident after England tour for him.

for example, Say i was your friend for 3 years and but slap u in front of 50000 people with millions watching in TV.What u would have done.Tit for Tat by slapping me or just express ur emotion in way of a cry. How can sreesanth knows that Bhajji is going to slap him at that instant and right after he slaps he starts crying, so that it will show bhajji in poor light.

One should be mad to stay that what sreesanth did was exhibitionism.It was purely spontaneous.U say what his team mates will say when he gets into team bus.In that case, what will happen if harbhajan gets into team bus. This is byfar the worst the article i have ever read, which had one and one purpose only - to potray that Sreesanth is a bad guy.

Sreesanth's cry did not evoke sympaty. At the most it was great fun.

What was he trying to make out? Firstly we saw him crying profusely and found his fellow players consoling him. His team managers lodged a complaint based on his "act". Then he said that it was more than a slap. Then said that he had fever in the morning and got emotionalin the evening! He then said that Bhajji was like a brother to him and he had the right to hit him. Only thing he did'nt say was that he was crying because Bhajji did'nt hit him! He made a fool of his fellow players, Team management and the cricketing public.

Bhajji and Sreesanth had always been poor finishers. Both should have broken each others nose and should have landed in hospital for three months. It would have saved the trouble for the Organizers and BCCI. The mistery for me is why BCCI had been protecting these two average players all along especially more capable players were waiting in the sideline as IPL showed. Any guess?

Agreed, every word of it. I don't know why people are not able to grasp the difference between Sydney and well, Mohali. At Sydney, it was one man's word against another, so it was wrong to punish Bhajji merely on the basis of Ponting's complaint and he rightly got justice in the end. Here, his acts were captured on the TV cameras though, with good reason, they have not been unleashed on the public-at-large and he himself had apologised to Sreesanth on the same day. There is a clear admission of guilt so punishment was inescapable.

Where I disagree - oops :P - is that Sreesanth has lost MORE. I see Sree being benched for some time, maybe a long time and getting upstaged by the Gonis and VRVs. But Harby's career is practically over unless completely out-of-type he shows tremendous character and reforms. Seeing as he gave an earful to Ponting back in 1998, his debut year in ODIs, that looks unlikely, it's a chronic disease, call it Turbanatoritis if you will.

Mr. Malik, you have made the logic stand on its head, and then kicked it so that it receded in the domain of absurdity!!! Why can't we accept a simple fact that what he did was wrong, and he has been rightly punished for that. Harbhajan himself admits that. Why try to show that he was an innocent victim of the circumstances that was wilfully created by Srishanth???

And is crying always a pretence, a show-off? Please shed off these typical Indian male ego, and live like a normal human being. A male is equally vulnerable to emotional outbursts as a female is, and there is absolutely nothing wrong in it.

I appreciate Srishant for his decent refusal to charge Harbhajan. Please remember that it was BCCI's in-promptu decision to enquire into the matter. Slowly but surely, BCCL, players, as well as spectators are maturing. I feel for the journalists who has to catch them up, and sooner the better. At last, my deep appreciation for Harbhajan for gracefully accepting the punishment.

Harbajan certainly seems to have been punished quite severely - perhaps too severely - however, he seems like a tough customer and will no doubt be back to his best if he can curb his temper; only a little mind you.

Personally, I have little affection for Sree, but one must with sorrow wonder where he will go from here. He certainly looked lost in the game that followed the incident. Hopefully he will be able to take stock of where he is at and accept the consequences of his actions which have been accruing for some time now. He seems very talented, but if he doesn't get it together, players like Ishant are going to leave him behind and we may not see him reach his full potential.

Dhoni has done such a wonderful job creating a sense of esprit de corps within the Indian side, and I'm sure he and the other leaders will do their best to minimise the impact of the altercation on team morale. I've really enjoyed the IPL - thanks for the cricket!

I think your article has been terribly judgemental. Here we are assessing the on field behavior of two gentelmen (if we can call them that!) and you have chosen to denigrate one and virtually exonerate the other in an obtuse sort of way. After this incident there can be no doubt left in my mind that Bhajji did call Symmo a monkey.

The "ma ki" gali was not spontaneous. It emerged a couple of days after the incident and that too via an sms joke. And Bhajji being the street smart urchin that he is knew this was one opportunity of a lifetime. He latched on to the comment quicker than a monkey snatching a banana and in the process managed to squiggle out of the issue.

But this time the cameras caught his naked aggression against a fellow player and he had no choice. How I wish he had raised his hand against Symmo in Australia. He would have been made into a real "Bhajji" then. The current ban is insufficient as an indictment of his behavior and even Sree Santh should have been penalized.

Author is trying to make us belive that what happened in Sydney was not in anyway related to What happened in Mohali. Harbhajan was saint there and saint here but media turned him villian now. Does the author belive that he said maa-ki not monkey to Symmond. Did we allowed fair trial in Symmond-Harbhajan case. We clearly said that we will not respect the verdict if that will not come in our favour and leave the Australian tour mid way.

What happened in Australia was the mockery of fair trial and we hailed that as the victory of our financial might. That was enough for our spoiled super hero cricketers to consider that they are above all.

Ban or no ban both Harbhajan and Sreesanth should not be taken in the national side for next at lest 1 year. Their current performance in anyway is of club standard.

I hope the author is not unveiling a veiled threat on Sreesanth just like Dhoni passed a judgement. Looks like the script has been written. These guys are going to be playing together. I am not sure if a Dravid or Sachin had said "hard luck" Bhajji would have done the same. Harbhajan seems to know exactly what he is doing. To describe someone's genuine hurt (physical or mental) as an act of showmanship doesn't do a great deal about the author's reputation. For my part I will just take note of the author's name when I read an article from him next time.

We all can agree that this "aggressiveness" goes overboard at times and sometimes you can't help but think to let the ball do the talking. On that front Sreesanth has been on the decline. Sometimes you wonder why these guys learn the basics (just the bowling) from the likes of McGrath and Pollock (Sachin said he could do it but not agaisnt Pollock like Hayden did!!). Well done! Meanwhile, Mr Ashok Malik. Pls pass more judgemets

Harbajhan shouldn't have slapped Sreesanth. That's the bottom line. If the provocation was out of bounds of the ICC code of conduct it should have been reported properly and through the correct channels, and hitting a person on the cricket field should not be tolerated.

But cricket needs players like Harbajhan, Sreesanth, Ponting, Andre Nel, etc because it creates excitement and interest in the game. People watch cricket to see good shots and good bowling but they come to see a battle as well. And seeing players get fired up representing their country or their team is good for sport, so while violence should not be tolerated, both players are needed in the sport.

Singh accepts his ban and will hopefully still be there for the next aust-ind series! As an aussie i cant wait!

P.S. Sreesanth's humiliation and embarrassment for crying on international tv is punishment enough. I respect him a lot less and see him now as an obnoxious little boy who can dish it but can't take it.

This article displays everything that is wrong with Indian commentary and Indian cricketer at the moment, who have a 'we are better than you' attitude, if this was in Australia, you would probably be writing that Harbi was intimidated by the ugly Australian, he was acting out of character, and was driven over the top by the Australian.

Since it is in India against another Indian, you are still in denial …. It is not Harbi’s fault, he was provoke, he was intimidated, he was acting out of character

Face the facts, Harbi is an obnoxious little weed and is one of the worst sportsmen in the history of the game.

If you think sledging is a problem, over appealing is a way to intimidate umpires to giving the wrong decision, the last time I checked India is pretty good at intimidation as well

LKJ: Certainly Harbhajan's actions don't by any measure support Andrew Symonds' claims against him, but they do more or less vindicate Matthew Hayden's statements.

Spot on! Harby definitely said something to Symmo in Sydney but what it is we don't know - we do know that it was probably "teri maa ki" - so best not to pull out imaginary skeletons from the closet. But Hayden's "flippant" - to quote Ponting - judgment on Bhajji was right on the mark.

To all rushing to Sreesanth's defence, he is believed to have wept in similar fashion to last week when Sanath laid into him at Canberra in the CB series (and maybe also because it was Ishant and not the "mighty" Sreesanth who cleaned him up eventually). It's certainly not to right to slap any player but I find it very hard to sympathize with Sreesanth because after his dream spell at Joburg in 2006, he has done little to justify his place in the team and should be shown the door ASAP.