November 09, 2008	Sunday	Ziqa'ad 10, 1429

MELBOURNE, Nov 8: Australian skipper Ricky Ponting is all set to kick up a fresh storm with claims that a senior member of the Indian team asked him to drop the charges of racial abuse against Harbhajan Singh during the acrimonious Sydney Test occurred earlier this year.

“On the night after we made our on-field report about Harbhajan, I had a phone conversation with a senior member of the Indian touring party, who asked me straight to drop the complaint,” Ponting reveals in his just-released book Captain’s Diary 2008, extracts of which came out in The Australian on Saturday.

Harbhajan was accused of racially abusing Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds by calling him a ‘monkey’ during the Sydney Test, a charge that was downgraded after the Indian off-spinner claimed that he had used a Hindi abuse that sounded similar to ‘monkey’.

Ponting, without revealing the name of the player who called him, goes on to say that the senior Indian cricketer tried convincing him about the futility of pursuing a long legal battle that would come with pressing such a serious charge. “‘Why do we need to keep it quiet?’ I asked.

“His reply had nothing to do with Harbhajan’s guilt or innocence; this fellow was more concerned with how events were going to transpire and tried to convince me it might not be worth the stress of going ahead with what might well be a prolonged legal process,” Ponting reveals.—Agencies