Harbhajan has been banned for three Tests by Procter after Australian captain Ricky Ponting lodged a protest during the Sydney Test that India lost, alleging that the Indian off-spinner had called Australian all-rounder of Caribbean origin Andrew Symonds a “big monkey”.

However, the Indian camp has strongly denied the charge with the team management today conveying to the BCCI that they would not tolerate a racist tag on one of their players based only on the oral evidence of Australian players.

“How can the match referee go completely by the word of Mathew Hayden and Michael Clarke and prosecute someone? Everybody knows how truthful Clarke (he claimed a bump-ball as a catch to get Sourav Ganguly dismissed yesterday) can be, and there was no video proof of what they were saying. We are shocked. The vibes we got from the match referee wasn’t positive and it looked a lost deal and an unfair trial,” a member of the Indian delegation at the hearing told The Indian Express.

“As of now the tour is on. We are awaiting further instructions from the BCCI,” said media manager MV Sridhar.