Sydney: A fear of losing $60 million if India terminated the tour midway made the Australian cricket board force the reluctant Australian players to dilute the charge of racial abuse against Harbhajan Singh, local media reported on Tuesday.
Cricket Australia (CA), which took legal advice, told its players that if the television rights holder and sponsors sued CA successfully, it could take 10 years to recoup the losses, the daily Sydney Morning Herald said.
The newspaper quoted an unnamed Australian player involved in Tuesday's re-hearing as saying that the CA backtracked because of the money power enjoyed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
"The thing that pisses us off is that it shows how much power India has. The Aussie guys aren't going to make it up. The players are frustrated because this shows how much influence India has, because of the wealth they generate. Money talks," said the paper in its Wednesday's edition posted on its website.
At Tuesday's hearing by a New Zealand High Court judge, Justice John Hansen, Harbhajan was slapped with 50 percent fine of his match fee, replacing his three-Test ban handed by International Cricket Council (ICC) match referee Mike Procter after the second Test in Sydney this month.
Andrew Symonds had alleged that Harbhajan had called him 'monkey', following which his captain Ricky Ponting had complained to the on-field umpires, leading to Procter handing the punishment.
Harbhajan was, however, allowed to play on after he appealed to the ICC against the ban. The ICC then appointed Hansen to have a re-hearing after the four-Test series ended in Adelaide Monday. Australia won the Test series 2-1.
The paper claimed Tuesday that the BCCI had threatened to fly its players home without playing Friday's Twenty20 International in Melbourne and the subsequent One-Day International (ODI) triangular series if the racial charge against Harbhajan was not dropped.
"The BCCI had even chartered a plane to take its players home tomorrow if the Indian player's three-Test suspension - for calling Australia's Andrew Symonds a monkey during the Sydney Test - had not been overturned at yesterday's [Tuesday] appeal in the Federal Court in Adelaide," it wrote.
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"CA was anxious to have the charge dropped because it feared its board would be sued for a figure understood to be about $60 million if India quit the tour. India's broadcast partner, ESPN, owns the lucrative contract to beam cricket from Australia into the subcontinent. If ESPN sued successfully, it could take 10 years to recoup the losses, CA told the players."
The paper said that the Australian cricketers were "understood to be furious" after the off-spinner's ban was lifted.
"It is understood the Australians had expected Harbhajan would be hit with a one-match ban and were dismayed to hear he had avoided any meaningful punishment," it said.
"The decision amounted to a straight-sets victory for India, which had the Jamaican umpire Steve Bucknor sacked and sent home after it complained about his incompetence during the acrimonious Sydney Test."
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