Rediff

Canberra, Jan 25: The International Cricket Council (ICC) is all set to take action against it's Cricket Committee chairman Sunil Gavaskar for his outburst against match referee Mike Procter, who had slapped a three-Test ban on Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh for racist abuse.

According to a report in The Australian, Gavaskar's criticism has been reported to ICC's executive board, which will meet in March.

In a newspaper column, Gavaskar had said that Procter went by the word of a "white man" instead of a "brown man" while declaring Harbhajan guilty of racially abusing Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds in the ill-tempered Sydney Test.

The daily reported that ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed and cricket manager Dave Richardson have already discussed the matter with Gavaskar.

"It will be another big test for the ICC executive board, made up of the presidents or chairmen of the 10 Test-playing nations, which has been accused of bowing to the India and the Afro-Asia bloc," it said.

Earlier, ICC President-elect David Morgan had also expressed concerns at Gavaskar's criticism of Procter.

"Conflicts of interest pervade our sport. In terms of Gavaskar, within the ICC, there is a concern now that he's chairman of the cricket committee and a journalist who has expressed some fairly outspoken comments," he had said.

Harbhajan's appeal against the ban comes up for hearing after the ongoing fourth and final Test against Australia in Adelaide.