Legendary former India captain Sunil Gavaskar on Sunday called for revoking the ban on Harbhajan Singh, saying the match-referee's decision was based not on facts, but emotion.
Indian off-spinner Harbhajan was suspended by South African match-referee Mike Procter for three Tests after being found guilty of racially abusing Australian Andrew Symonds during the second Test in Sydney last week.
The tour was in jeopardy following racism and umpiring rows, but Indian officials later confirmed it would go ahead after their demand for removing an umpire was accepted by the sport's world governing body.
Harbhajan will be allowed to play the final two Tests in Perth and Adelaide till the International Cricket Council Code of Conduct commissioner, appointed to adjudicate on India's appeal against Procter's decision, completes his inquiry.
Gavaskar said the charge against Harbhajan should be dropped immediately for lack of evidence. "The off-spinner has denied having used the word which has caused offence and in the absence of any audio recording and most crucially with both umpires not having heard it, the charge should have been dropped straight away for lack of corroborating evidence," Gavaskar wrote in his Hindustan Times column.
"By accepting the word of the Australian players and not the Indian players, the match-referee has exposed himself to the charge of taking a decision based not on facts, but on emotion."
The 58-year-old Gavaskar, who is also the head of the ICC's rule-making committee, said it had incensed millions of Indians who had been asking why his decision should not be considered a racist one.
"Millions of Indians want to know if was a 'white man' taking the 'white man's' word against that of the 'brown man'. Quite simply if there was no audio evidence nor did the officials hear anything then the charge did not stand," he wrote.
Tendulkar was one of the five Indians present at the racism charge hearing, others being skipper Anil Kumble, Harbhajan, manager Chetan Chauhan and media manager M. V. Sridhar.
Former opener Gavaskar said the moment a charge was upheld without any "tangible proof" it left the door open for similar charges to be made. "Just suppose a team wants to get rid of a player who is a threat to them. The simplest thing to do is to have some players to say that there was a racist taunt directed at them," he wrote.
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