India's tour to Australia will go on after Harbhajan Singh was cleared of racially abusing Andrew Symonds at an appeal hearing in Adelaide yesterday. Harbhajan pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of using abusive language and was fined half his match fee.

The controversy is not over, however. The judgment by John Hansen, a New Zealand High Court judge, has angered Symonds's Australia team-mates, who believe that their board has buckled under the pressure imposed by India, the sport's financial power-brokers.

“The thing that p***es us off is that it shows how much power India has,” an unnamed, contracted player said in The Sydney Morning Herald. “The Aussie guys aren't going to make it [the accusation] up. The players are frustrated because this shows how much influence India has because of the wealth they generate. Money talks.”

The anger has been simmering since the third day of the second Test in Sydney, when Steve Bucknor and Mark Benson, the umpires, brought a charge under section 3.3 of the ICC code of conduct, which relates to racially insulting behaviour, after a complaint from Ricky Ponting, the Australia captain, that Harbhajan had called Symonds a “monkey”.

Mike Procter, the match referee, found Harbhajan guilty and banned him for three Tests. India suspended the tour for two days and threatened to go home before the ICC made a number of concessions, including allowing Harbhajan to play on, pending his appeal. The series was completed, Australia winning 2-1, but the rest of the tour, involving a Twenty20 international and a triangular series that includes Sri Lanka, remained in doubt until Hansen dismissed the charge after a 5-hour hearing.

Reports in the Indian media suggested that Cricket Australia and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had worked out a compromise to salvage the one-day tournament and that Ponting and Sachin Tendulkar, who was batting with Harbhajan at the time of the alleged offence, had written to Hansen asking him to downgrade the charge.

During the hearing, all the witnesses - Ponting, Michael Clarke, Matthew Hayden and Tendulkar - were cross-examined and additional evidence, including television footage and audio transcripts that were not available to Procter, was presented. It had been suggested that Harbhajan would claim he had used a derogatory but non-racial Punjabi phrase that may have been misinterpreted.

In evidence supplied by Channel Nine, Hayden is heard remonstrating with Harbhajan. “You've got a witness now, champ,” Hayden says. “It's racial vilification, mate. It's a s*** word and you know it.” Harbhajan can be heard protesting that Symonds started the verbal exchange, but the actual word is inaudible.

The ICC said in a statement: “Justice Hansen said he was convinced that, on all the evidence submitted before him, the charge of a level 3.3 offence was not proven but that Harbhajan should be charged with a level 2.8 offence [abuse and insult not amounting to racism].” Both sides accepted the decision in a joint statement released by Cricket Australia and the BCCI. Harbhajan and Symonds had “resolved the on-field issue between them and intend to move on. Both captains also said they were satisfied with the outcome.”

Hansen is due to give an explanation for his ruling today, while an ICC spokesman said that it would need “a few days” to digest what the commissioner said before making any comment. It has serious questions to answer, not least about the role of match referees in general and Procter in particular. He did not appear to take any action at the Brit Oval in 2006 when Pakistan forfeited the final Test against England after allegations of ball-tampering. Now he has acted decisively and had his ruling overturned.

Shaun Tait, the Australia fast bowler, is to take an indefinite break from the sport because he is suffering from “emotional and physical exhaustion” and needs to “rest and recover”. Tait, 24, burst into Test cricket against England in 2005 but has since undergone shoulder and elbow operations and struggled to establish himself in the Australia team.