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India tour resumes after ICC brokers temporary peace

India's Harbhajan Singh, left, and Sachin Tendulkar warm up during a training session at the Manuka Oval ground in Canberra yesterday. PHOTO: AFP

India resumed their troubled cricket tour of Australia yesterday, arriving in Canberra two days behind schedule after the International Cricket Council (ICC) brokered a temporary peace deal.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India gave its team approval to check out of the Sydney hotel which had been its refuge since a storm broke over umpiring, sportsmanship and racial abuse during the second Test at Sydney.

India are to play a tour match in Canberra against a representative side of the Australian Capital Territory.

However India captain Anil Kumble did not rule out another suspension of the tour if the three-Test ban imposed on India spinner Harbhajan Singh for making racist comments to Australia's Andrew Symonds was not overturned on appeal.

The ICC's senior counsel, Urvasi Naidoo, on Wednesday appointed New Zealand High Court judge John Hansen to hear the appeal, but no date or venue was set for the hearing.

Kumble said he asked rival captain Ricky Ponting to handle the racism allegations informally but a formal complaint had already been lodged with the match referee.

"Having played cricket for this long, [I knew] such an allegation would definitely spiral into what it has now. I anticipated that it would spiral into a larger issue," Kumble said. "There is an appeal that has been made so we are hopeful we get the right decision."

Harbhajan was charged with allegedly calling Symonds a monkey on the third day of the Test.

Kumble said Harbhajan and Sachin Tendulkar, who was batting at the time of the comment, told him that the taunt was never made.

Ill feeling between the Australia and India teams was simmering before the ICC broke an impasse by ordering umpire Steve Bucknor be replaced for the third Test by Billy Bowden.

India team manager Chetan Chauhan said the team had "left behind" the bitter fall-out from the Sydney Test.

ICC chief Malcolm Speed said the decision to remove Bucknor had avoided an "international crisis."
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