Sport: Race, Ethnicity and Identity by Daryl Adair

Author:Daryl Adair [Adair, Daryl]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781135693688
Goodreads: 18556293
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2013-09-13T00:00:00+00:00

Later, after a formal complaint from Australian captain Ricky Ponting, Singh was charged with the offence of ‘using language or gestures that offends, insults, humiliates, intimidates, threatens, disparages or vilifies another person on the basis of that person’s race, religion, gender, colour, descent or national or ethnic origin’. International Cricket Council (ICC) match referee Mike Procter – a white South African – was ‘satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt’ that the offence occurred and Singh was banned for three matches. This decision, in the absence of any evidence other than the testimony of Australian players, was overturned on appeal, with the racism charge against Harbhajan downgraded to that of using ‘abusive language’, after senior players on both sides reportedly requested the downgrading, reputedly under pressure to ‘de-escalate’ a conflict that could see the end of the series and lead to further substantial damage to important cricket-based relations between Australia and India, and in recognition of India’s ascendant economic power within the sport.22 Singh was only fined 50% of his match fee (although ICC Appeals Commissioner Justice John Hansen had, in error, neglected to take into account previous proven Code of Conduct violations by Singh, including a suspended one Test ban). Hansen also noted mitigating circumstances, judging Symonds to be the original aggressor having, after Harbhajan had touched an Australian player in a friendly manner, ‘approached Mr Singh telling him he had no friends among the Australians in foul and abusive language’,23 and with Symonds commenting that ‘a Test match is no place to be friendly with an opposition player’.24

Prior to this decision, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had suspended the tour and allegedly chartered an aircraft to return the team to India. A former Indian captain and Chairman of the ICC Cricket Committee (since resigned), Sunil Gavaskar, implied racism on Procter’s behalf in an article in the Hindustan Times, stating that ‘Millions of Indians want to know if [it] was a “white man” taking the “white man’s” word against that of the “brown man”’,25 although later claiming that he did not personally call Procter racist. Gavaskar’s later criticisms were of the two main Western powers in cricket:

Gone are the days when two countries, England and Australia, had the veto power in international cricket, even though the dinosaurs may not open their eyes and see the reality, [he wrote]. The cricketing world has found that India has no longer a diffident voice but a confident one that knows what is good for its cricket, and will strive to get it.

What may have worried these people was the manner in which India defended Harbhajan Singh on the racist allegation made against him [in Australia in January]. When all the technology in the world was unable to prove that he had indeed said anything, these guys, especially those in Australia, were unable to stomach it.

Those worried of the prospect of India’s hegemony were conveniently forgetting that only a few years back, there were two Australians at the top of the ICC.

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