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Harbhajan may be considered again

The Board of Control for Cricket in India announced in Bombay today that Punjab off-spinner Harbhajan Singh was eligible to play for India and that the selectors would consider him available for the New Zealand tour in December.

BCCI secretary Jaywant Lele said the board has reconsidered its earlier plan to await the International Cricket Conference decision on the bowler's action, terming it as innocent until found guilty.

Lele said at the moment there is only some suspicion about Harbhajan and that he has not yet been docked.

The BCCI came under lot of pressure when Harbhajan, who made an international impact as a teenager against the Australians at home early this year, was dropped for the Dhaka competition following allegations by three match referees, Ranjan Madugulle, Talat Ali and Van der Merve.

Quite a few Indian Test cricketers, including Kapil Dev and Dilip Sardesai criticised the BCCI for not backing Harbhajan like the Sri Lankan board did Muthaiah Murlitharan and Kumara Dharmasena.

Sardesai even called the BCCI a puppet of the ICC, a charge Lele chose not to respond to.

Lele said Harbhajan would first play for the BCCI XI against the West Indies at the Brabourne Stadium in Bombay later this month and his action would be filmed. That video would be studied by Indian experts, probably Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev and Erapalli Prasanna, he said.

Harbhajan is already in London to attend the clinic of former British off-spinner Fred Titmus for two days.

Lele did not confirm or deny whether Mohammed Azharuddin's statement in Dhaka that India badly missed a quality off-spinner like Harbhajan caused the BCCI to revert their earlier decision to wait for ICC clearance.

A few months ago, Rajesh Chauhan went through similar drama but is now sidelined. But, according to BCCI president Raj Singh Dungarpur, that was because Chauhan went back to chucking the ball.

UNI