Harbhajan Singh has been cleared of making racist comments and, as a result, has had his three-match ban rescinded. The India spinner had been accused of calling Andrew Symonds, the Australia all-rounder, a "monkey" during the second Test in Sydney.

However, after an appeal at the Federal Court in Adelaide the charge was downgraded to one of using abusive language and Harbhajan has been fined 50 per cent of his match fee as a lesser punishment.

"He has been cleared - the racial charge has been dropped against him," Niranjan Shah, the BCCI secretary, said.

"The Board of Control for Cricket India (BCCI) made it clear during the hearing that [the] racism charge was like laying blame on the board and the nation, and should be dropped," VR Manohar, Harbhajan's counsel, said.

The ICC revealed that prior to the hearing a letter signed by all the players involved - from both Australia and India - was tendered in evidence as an agreed statement of facts as to what took place during the Sydney Test match.

The triangular one-day series between Australia, Sri Lanka and India will now go ahead. India had threatened to pull out of the tournament if the three-match ban handed out to their spinner for the alleged comment was upheld.

Harbhajan was ushered into the Federal Court without making any comment to the media, and was followed in soon after by Sachin Tendulkar, the India batsman. The Australian team members had arrived earlier, while captain Ricky Ponting left the hearing shortly after noon, again without making any comment.

John Hansen, the New Zealand high court judge, put his decision before the International Cricket Council before being it was announced publicly.

Peter Young, a spokesman for Cricket Australia, confirmed the Commonwealth Bank triangular series plus Friday's Twenty20 match in Melbourne will go ahead. "My understanding is that the Indian team is now planning to travel to Melbourne for the Twenty20 match on Friday," Young said.

"All parties will move on with the cricket. The game is the important thing," he said.