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“At no point was I under any kind of pressure. I was unaware of Harbhajan’s earlier cases, had I known them, the judgement could have been different,” said Hansen.
Harbhajan was found guilty of making a racist comment to Australia's Andrew Symonds under level three of the ICC's Code of Conduct during the second Test at the SCG earlier this month, resulting in a three-match ban. However, on Tuesday Hansen diluted the charges to level two of ICC Code of Conduct by dropping the charge of racial abuse.
Hansen said that the video and audio evidence submitted were inconclusive and it could not be established without doubt that Harbhajan had racially abused Symonds.
“Harbhajan was lucky to get benefit of database and human error,” he added.
Hansen accepted Tendulkar's version of events including his view that Harbhajan did not call Symonds a "monkey" because Tendulkar was the closest witness and his word mattered the most in the case.
Tendulkar also testified that both players swore at each other during the Sydney Test.
Hansen said even if it is taken into account that Harbhajan did use the word "monkey", it was difficult to accept the fact that Symonds would have taken offence.
"In my view even if he used the words alleged, an ordinary person standing in the shoes of Mr Symonds, who had launched an unprovoked and unnecessary invective-laden attack, would not be offended or insulted or humiliated," said Hansen.
“Symonds abused Harbhajan first. He was determined to get involved in the Harbhajan-Lee on-field spat,” Hansen was quoted as saying by a TV news channel.
Referring to all the scathing attack on Cricket Australia by the Australian media, Hansen said that it was “incorrect to suggest that there’s an agreement between Cricket Australia and BCCI”.
He out rightly denied that he delivered a favourable verdict after threats from the Indian Cricket Board to abandon their tour of Australia and flatly dismissed speculation that a deal had been struck between legal counsel for the Australian and Indian players. There's been a wonderful relationship that the BCCI and Cricket Australia have shared over the years," he said.
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