Harbhajan cleared for his racist comment

Harbhajan Singh has been cleared of making racist comments and, as a result, has had his three-match ban rescinded, according to the Board of Control for Cricket India (BCCI).

Harbhajan had been accused of calling Australia all-rounder Andrew Symonds a "monkey" during the second Test in Sydney.

However, after an appeal at the Federal Court in Adelaide the charge was downgraded to one of using abusive language and Harbhajan has been fined 50% of his match fee as a lesser punishment.

VR Manohar, Harbhajan's counsel, said: "BCCI made it clear during the hearing that racism charge was like laying blame on the board and the nation, and should be dropped."

Match umpires Mark Benson and Steve Bucknor had brought the charge against Harbhajan under section 3.3 of the ICC code of conduct after receiving a complaint from Australia captain Ricky Ponting on day three of the Sydney Test when the spinner was batting alongside Sachin Tendulkar.

Harbhajan was ushered into the Federal Court on Tuesday morning without making any comment to the media, and was followed in soon after by Tendulkar.

The Australian team members had arrived earlier, while Ponting left the hearing shortly after noon, again without making any comment.

Cricket Australia spokesman Peter Young is keen for both sides to put the unsavoury incident behind them and concentrate on the triangular series involving the two teams and Sri Lanka looming on the horizon.

"All parties will move on with the cricket," Young said. "The game is the important thing."