Sydney: Harbhajan Singh has earned quite a few labels, but could’ve done without being called a racist. Unless his three-Test ban is overturned, that label will remain.

Till such time that Harbhajan’s appeal is disposed of, he’ll be free to turn out for Team India.

The appeal, one learns, will be filed on Monday.

It took Match Referee Mike Procter around five hours to conclude that Harbhajan, indeed, was guilty of hurling a racist abuse at Andrew Symonds.

The hearing was held at the SCG with the central characters, their witnesses and team officials present under one roof. Everybody made his “presentation” before being cross-examined.

According to The Telegraph’s sources, complainant Ricky Ponting (also a witness for Symonds) admitted that he didn’t hear Harbhajan call his teammate a monkey.

Another witness, vice-captain Adam Gilchrist, said the same thing.

Only senior pro Matthew Hayden and Michael Clarke, who has captained Australia in a Twenty20 International, maintained they’d heard the “racist abuse.”

Harbhajan, apparently, asked both whether they’d also heard the abuses coming from Symonds. They replied in the negative.

The Australians, incidentally, couldn’t produce any audio-evidence to establish their allegation. However, Symonds and Co. charged that Harbhajan had said the same thing during the Mumbai ODI in mid-October.

Well, why didn’t they complain then?

The cross-examinations, according to a well-placed source, weren’t absolutely cordial, but nobody really created a scene.

It couldn’t be confirmed, but the buzz is that Team India manager Chetan Chauhan bluntly told Ponting that Harbhajan’s success against him had influenced the allegation.

Meanwhile, there’s talk that the Indians will charge Brad Hogg with using abusive language.