Harbhajan Singh has been banned for the remaining 11 matches of the Indian Premier League and fined about $660,000 for slapping Indian team-mate Sreesanth.

IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi told a news conference on Monday that Harbhajan would be fined all of his match fees for the remainder of the tournament. He has already played three of 14 games and although he will not lose what he has already earned he will lose much of his $850,000 salary that his Mumbai franchise paid.
 
The incident happened on Friday after the Mumbai team - captained by Harbhajan - lost to Mohali. Television footage was unclear but appeared to show opponent Sreesanth sobbing.

“As a penalty for the level 4.2 offence committed by Mr Harbhajan Singh, we hereby order that Mr Harbhajan Singh be banned for the rest of the remaining matches of the first IPL event,” Modi announced after the a disciplinary committee had viewed the footage and interviewed all parties concerned.

“We also order that Mr Harbhajan Singh be fined 100 per cent of any player fee that may have been paid or may hereafter be paid to him in respect of the remaining matches only. That does not take into account any of the two earlier matches (prior to Friday) that he may have played.”

Mumbai were already missing their preferred captain Sachin Tendulkar because of injury and with Harbhajan’s ban meant that Shaun Pollock had to captain them in their most recent match on Sunday when they lost to an Adam Gilchrist-inspired Deccan Chargers by ten wickets. The team has lost four out of four so far.