As the Harbhajan Singh affair took a new twist today with the removal of Steve Bucknor as umpire for the upcoming Perth Test and the re-instatement of the spinner pending appeal, mutual antipathy and self-recrimination were evident on the pages of both Australian and Indian newspapers.

Prior to Harbhajan's re-inclusion, The Hindustan Times was largely supportive of a readers' poll calling for India to return home from Australia.

"This country doesn’t believe in Gandhigiri any more," the paper said. "And it doesn’t want to be messed with. Indians want Kumble and Co to drop everything and return home. Right away. If there is one word that can describe the way the country feels now, it is this: disgust.

"Indians are disgusted by the way their team lost the Sydney Test — done in by the umpires in the most dubious fashion— and was later hit by an outrageous racial slur controversy. This is not about cricket any more, they believe. If it was merely about winning or losing a match — no matter how humiliating the defeat. Defeats are okay, but not this."

Expert View

The reason the row has got out of hand is not because of racism. It is because too soft a line has been taken on the practice of sledging for far too long

Simon Barnes

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BACKGROUND

• Bucknor axed in Test cricket racism row

• Cricket split by 'Bollyline' tour

• India’s wounded national pride

• The slippery slope of sledging

BACKGROUND

• Procter haunted by controversy

• Controversy timeline

• Other cricketing controversies

• 'Bring them home' say majority of fans

BACKGROUND

• Australia finds little in which to glory

• World media split over Harbhajan affair

Multimedia

• Are Australia bad sports?

• Echoes of Bodyline series

• Patrick Kidd on Steve Bucknor decision

While reflecting that the manner of defeat "has hurt our national pride”, it also suggested that umpires Bucknor and Mark Benson were biased against their team, and that Harbhajan did not get a fair hearing because of his race.

"And did Harbhajan actually abuse Symonds racially?" it went on. "Most Indians believe he didn’t. They believe him, they believe Sachin Tendulkar. And they seem to believe that the spinner didn’t get a fair hearing only because he is Indian."

The New India Express questioned a number of former India Test cricketers who were gleeful at Bucknor's removal from the Perth Test, while others demanded further action including his outright removal from the ICC elite panel.

"Most of the former players asked ICC to consider an age limit for the umpires and felt getting Bucknor ousted from the Perth Test was a moral victory for India," the paper reported. "ICC has done a pretty good job. I don't think Bucknor will ever [again] get an opportunity to stand in Tests. There is a process and he will be demoted," former captain Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi said.

Navjot Singh Sidhu was more forthright in his view and said the Jamaican umpire was not fit for the job anymore and should be shown the door, saying: “Bucknor should be forced to retire because it amounts to playing with the pride and prestige of the country. Getting him removed was the first moral victory for India".

The Hindustan Times also reported that India were outraged by the charges laid at Harbhajan. "It is believed that the Indian contingent at the Harbhajan Singh hearing on Sunday night repeatedly asked the Australians to think very carefully before going ahead with the “racism” charge against [him], saying it was a serious charge that had repercussions “far beyond cricket”, the paper reported.

The Sahara Samay ran with a story that Sachin Tendulkar has denied sending an SMS to Sharad Pawar, the BCCI chief requesting that the tour of Australia be suspended.

Media reports yesterday suggested Tendulkar set wheels in motion by sending a text message to Pawar assuring him that the off-spinner was innocent and suggesting that India should play the third Test only if the punishment is revoked.

Meanwhile, the Australian press, largely supportive of their team's actions have entered into a heated debate over captain Ricky Ponting's conduct in the match.

Peter Roebuck, the former Somerset captain, writing in the The Sydney Morning Herald called for Ponting's removal as Australia Test captain.

"If Cricket Australia cares a fig for the tattered reputation of our national team in our national sport, it will not for a moment longer tolerate the sort of arrogant and abrasive conduct seen from the captain and his senior players over the past few days," he wrote.

"Make no mistake, it is not only the reputation of these cricketers that has suffered. Australia itself has been embarrassed."

However, Malcolm Conn in The Australian laughed off calls for Ponting to stand down for "overcelebrating" the record-equalling Test win.

"They could not contain themselves at the delight of their success," he claimed. "Has this damaged cricket in the same way that Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh has by being found guilty of racial abuse, particularly after he had done it before during last year’s one-day tour of India?" and went on: "Harbhajan, the BCCI officials and all those who support their stand should hang their heads in shame".

The Herald suggested that "cricket is facing its greatest crisis since the match-fixing saga, after the Board of Control for Cricket in India ordered a suspension of the national team's current tour of Australia.

"In doing so, the all-powerful Indian board, which accounts for an estimated 70 per cent of the game's global revenue, has issued a direct challenge to the sovereignty of the International Cricket Council and the integrity of Australia's players."