India's Cricket Tour Continues

Jan. 9 (Bloomberg) -- India's cricket tour of Australia, blighted by rows about umpiring, racism and sportsmanship, resumed today when the team left Sydney two days late.

Indian cricket officials yesterday told the players to proceed to Canberra following moves by the sport's ruling body to ease tension surrounding the tour, including dropping umpire Steve Bucknor from the third Test match.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India said in a statement late yesterday that the tour would continue ``for the present'' and that it will review ``all other developments continuously'' -- a reference in particular to an appeal against a racism ban handed to Harbhajan Singh.

India's players two days ago abandoned plans to travel from Sydney after the spin bowler received a three-match suspension for allegedly calling a black Australian player a ``monkey'' during the second Test. Harbhajan denied the allegation. A date for the appeal has yet to be set.

The Indians were also angered by what they perceived as a lack of sportsmanship from the home team, whose last-gasp victory in Sydney secured a 2-0 lead in the four-match series, as well as the standard of umpiring.

``What we have elected to do, and we've given some serious thought about this, is to take one of the issues out of play,'' Malcolm Speed, chief executive officer of the International Cricket Council, told the Nine Network today. ``We start again from the umpiring perspective in Perth and hopefully focus on the matters on the pitch rather than exacerbating the crisis.''

India had demanded Bucknor, a 61-year-old Jamaican, be stood down. New Zealand's Billy Bowden will replace him in Perth.

Harbhajan Appeal

The Indian board's working committee last night urged its president Sharad Pawar to fight the ``totally uncalled for, unjustified and patently illegal ban'' against Harbhajan.

Indian officials say the spinner was punished on the word of Australian players, because the umpires didn't hear the alleged remark. Speed said yesterday he didn't know whether Harbhajan's hearing would take place before the third Test, which starts Jan. 16.

The Dubai, United Arab Emirates-based ICC will appoint a code-of-conduct commissioner to oversee the appeal. Harbhajan can continue playing until the issue is resolved.

Australian spin bowler Brad Hogg faces a separate Jan. 14 hearing after being charged with using offensive language to India captain Anil Kumble and vice-captain Mahendra Dhoni on the last day of the Sydney Test. The charge carries a maximum ban of four Tests or eight one-day internationals.

Mediator Appointed

Ranjan Madugalle, the ICC's chief match referee, was yesterday appointed to act as a mediator between the teams.

Kumble has accused the Australians of lacking sportsmanship, saying that Ricky Ponting's team didn't uphold ``the spirit of the game'' in Sydney.

Ponting, writing in the Australian newspaper yesterday, said the match was played in a ``terrific spirit.''

John Bertrand, the 1983 America's Cup-winning skipper and chairman of the Sport Australia Hall of Fame, said the organization would seek a meeting with Australian cricket officials because the team's ``win at all costs'' attitude was damaging relations.

``Sport is only sport. It's not war,'' Bertrand told the Herald Sun. ``Their desire to win at all costs is beginning to blur their moral compass.''

Criticism of the team was unjustified, according to James Sutherland, Cricket Australia's chief executive officer.

``Test cricket is what is being played; it is not tiddlywinks,'' Sutherland told reporters today in Melbourne. ``The Australian cricket team will be the first to admit they are not perfect. They don't get it right all of the time, but they get it right a lot more now than they used to.''

India will next face an invitational team in a three-day match starting tomorrow in Canberra before heading to Perth.