In less than three months, Harbhajan Singh will be attending a second disciplinary hearing following his alleged misconduct on the field during Friday’s IPL match between Mumbai Indians and Kings XI Punjab.

Harbhajan will arrive at a five-star hotel in New Delhi on Monday, where match referee Farokh Engineer will study the 10-minute footage provided by the official broadcasters of the tournament, seek an explanation from the off-spinner and Sreesanth (the victim) and decide on the punishment to be meted out to the Mumbai Indians bowler, if necessary.

The incident where Harbhajan is alleged to have slapped Sreesanth took an ugly turn after the Kings XI Punjab team decided to go ahead with filing an official complaint. Later, Mumbai Indians — in keeping with the ICC Code of Conduct — appointed South African Shaun Pollock as captain in place of Harbhajan and sidelined the latter pending enquiry.

On the eve of the hearing, IPL commissioner and BCCI vice-president Lalit Modi said the in-stadium cameras “did pick up something” which will be used as evidence. “What went wrong was that the players, after pledging to uphold the MCC Spirit of Cricket, crossed the line. Harbhajan said he was provoked,” he said.

Under the circumstance, Harbhajan is likely to be sternly reprimanded, if not slapped with a severe punishment, after the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has taken a serious view of the episode. BCCI chief administrative officer, Prof Ratnakar Shetty, and secretary Niranjan Shah, have both termed Harbhajan’s behaviour as “unheard of” and “shameful.”

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