The Board of Control for Cricket in India gave its team approval to check out of the Sydney hotel which had been its refuge since a storm broke over umpiring, sportsmanship and racial abuse during the second test at Sydney.

India is to play a tour match in the national capital Canberra against a representative side of the Australian Capital Territory.

However India captain Anil Kumble did not rule out another suspension of the tour if the three-test ban imposed on India spinner Harbhajan Singh for making racist comments to Australia's Andrew Symonds was not overturned on appeal.

Harbhajan is allowed to play in the third test starting in Perth next Wednesday while his suspension is under appeal.

The ICC's senior counsel, Urvasi Naidoo, on Wednesday appointed New Zealand High Court judge John Hansen to hear the appeal, but no date or venue was set for the hearing.

"The process indicates that the appeal should be heard within seven days of the commissioner being appointed," the ICC said in a statement. "However, this time period may be extended if circumstances dictate."

Kumble, who accused the Australians of not playing in the spirit of cricket in the second test in Sydney, said he asked rival captain Ricky Ponting to handle the racism allegations informally but a formal complaint had already been lodged with the match referee.

"Having played cricket for this long, (I knew) such an allegation would definitely spiral into what it has now. I anticipated that it would spiral into a larger issue," Kumble said. "There is an appeal that has been made so we are hopeful we get the right decision."

Harbhajan was charged with allegedly calling Symonds, who has Caribbean heritage, a monkey on the third day of the test which Australia won to take a 2-0 series lead.

Kumble said Harbhajan and Sachin Tendulkar, who was batting at the time of the comment, told him that the taunt was never made.

"It has been tough. It has been very difficult because it's a very serious issue," Kumble said. "The entire team is together on this and has really backed him."

Ill feeling between the Australia and India teams was simmering before the ICC broke an impasse by ordering umpire Steve Bucknor be replaced for the Perth test by New Zealander Billy Bowden.

India team manager Chetan Chauhan said the team had "left behind" the bitter fall-out from the Sydney test.

"They (the Indian team) can play thanks to the efforts of the BCCI and also it's very nice to have the ICC to come together and hopefully everything will be settled and we will play good cricket," Chauhan said.

"We have certain issues which we brought to the notice of the BCCI and those issues have been taken up with the ICC and some positions have been taken."

ICC chief Malcolm Speed said the decision to remove Bucknor, who made a series of errors during the second test at Sydney, had avoided an "international crisis."

"We could have gone in banging the table and playing 'who blinks first', we could have turned what is already an international incident into an international crisis," Speed said.

"What we have elected to do, and we've given some serious thought about this, is to take one of the issues out of play.

"There was unhappiness about the umpiring, we put a new umpiring team in place, and we start again from the umpiring perspective in Perth and hopefully focus on the matters on the pitch rather than exacerbating the crisis."

ICC chief referee Ranjan Madugalle will hold talks with Ponting and Kumble in Perth next week in an attempt to clear the air ahead of the third test.


Courtesy - The Island