NZ judge ensures total cave-in to Subcontinent blackmail

You have to laugh at the suggestion that appeals commissioner and New Zealand High Court judge John Hansen would be biased in favour of the Australians while adjudicating match umpire Proctor's original judgment and deciding whether Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh was in fact guilty of a racist comment. Yes, it appeared in the media. The dominant political class in New Zealand is even more PC than its cousins in Australia. Hansen's decision and its wording were no surprise.

Incredibly his judgment meant in effect that Andrew Symonds was guilty of nasty behaviour, and that behaviour provoked the pure-of-heart Harbhajan Singh to retaliate. The NZ judge admitted later that he did not know that Harbhajan Singh's grubby behaviour had provoked reports on four previous occasions, one of which was a threat to an umpire. It leaves one breathless.

The verbal exchange and vision captured by 'stump cam' was clear in all the vital parts except what Harbhajan Singh said. But there can be little doubt from Symonds and Matthew Hayden's immediate reaction that they clearly understood the word 'monkey'. It is just not credible considering their proximity to Harbhajan Singh that they misheard a filthy Hindi insult that 'sounded like' monkey. The Hindi insult was 'teri maki'. The word 'monkey' was the right piece to make the puzzle complete.

Second, why would Singh use an Hindi insult, unintelligible to Symonds and Hayden, when from his demeanour it was evident he wanted them to understand what he was saying?

The whole process has been a travesty in which people suffering from cultural self-loathing or motivated by the financial aspects of the game have gone belly up in the face of Indian blackmail.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) could not stand the thought that they could be accused of racism by people they have contempt for.

Unfortunately cricketing great Sachin Tendulkar has not come out of this very well. Read the Herald Sun report:

Judge blasts Andrew Symonds for Harbhajan Singh race row