New Delhi: Match Referee and adjudicator Farokh Engineer said on Monday that Harbhajan Singh had slapped Sreesanth without any provocation.

Media reports had earlier claimed that Sreesanth have Mumbai Indians batsman Musavir Khote a piece of his mind, which irked Harbhajan.

But Engineer refuted the claim, saying “there was no provocation for the incident”.

BCCI joint secretary M.P. Pandove said that Harbhajan should learn a lesson and conduct himself better in the future. “Harbhajan shouldn’t have done this. He should now learn a lesson from this episode,” Pandove said.

“Harbhajan should play the game in the right spirit and ensure that misbehaviour is not repeated in future,” said Pandove, who is also the secretary of the Punjab Cricket Association. (PTI)