Commissioner submits report, verdict in a week

Mumbai: BCCI appointed commissioner Sudhir Nanavati, who was given charge to hear the slapgate case involving Harbhajan Singh and S Sreesanth, submitted a 14-page report to the board on Tuesday.

Nanavati says Harbhajan, who has already been banned for 11 IPL matches, effectively the entire tournament, should not be penalised any more.

Harbhajan's punishment will be decided within a week. Sources tell CNN-IBN that the off-spinner could be banned for up to 10 One-day Internationals, ruling out a life ban, which is the maximum in the case of a Level 4 offence.

CNN-IBN has learnt that Nanavati in his report has mentioned that Harbhajan has already been punished harshly and should be given another chance. His view has also been echoed by Farrokh Engineer, the match referee, who initially announced the 11-match IPL ban on him.

In his report, Nanavati quotes umpire Amiesh Sahiba as saying that Harbhajan was provoked by Sreesanth. Harbhajan admitted his guilt and promised never to do anything like this again. The umpire was also suspended for two games for speaking to the media about the incident.

The punishment will be decided by a three-member BCCI panel which will go through the report submitted by the Appeals Commissioner. The report was prepared after hearing Sreeshanth, Harbhajan and match referee Farrokh Engineer's versions on May 9. The committee includes Pawar, BCCI present-elect Shashank Manohar and Vice President Chirayu Amin.

"My report has all details on what had happened on the field. It is for the Disciplinary Committee to decide on the punishment for Harbhajan," Nanavati said after submitting his report at the BCCI headquarters here.

He also reiterated that the footage of the incident had 'shocked him'.

Reacting to Nanavati's submission of the report, Shetty said, "The Disciplinary Committee will meet soon to study the report and the decision will be based on it."

Sources, however, have further told CNN-IBN that Harbhajan also faces a demotion to category C of BCCI's contracted list of players from his current category B.