Harbhajan Singh has been found guilty of making a racist comment to Andrew Symonds on the third day of the Sydney Test and slapped with a three-Test ban. Mike Procter, the match referee, ruled at the end of a four-hour hearing that Harbhajan had breached Level 3 of the ICCs Code of Conduct. The Indian team management said it would appeal against the ban.The charge was brought by the on-field umpires after they received a complaint from Ricky Ponting, Australias captain. The incident occurred when Harbhajan was batting with Sachin Tendulkar during Indias first innings on Saturday. It was alleged that Harbhajan had an argument with Symonds, during which time he called Symonds a monkey.Announcing his verdict, Procter said: I am satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that Harbhajan Singh directed that word at Andrew Symonds and also that he meant it to offend on the basis of Symonds race or ethnic origin.The ban takes place immediately and so will rule Harbhajan out of the rest of the Test series. The Indian management have 24 hours to lodge an appeal with the ICC and, if they do so, he will be free to play pending that hearing.It also emerged that the Indians levelled a counter-claim of abuse against Brad Hogg, Australias left-arm spinner. A report in the Sydney Morning Herald said the Indians accused Hogg of using offensive language during the Test. The report stated that the hearing on Hoggs conduct will, in all likelihood, be held on Monday.MV Sridhar, the assistant manager, who spoke to the media before the decision was announced, said there was no video or audio evidence involving Harbhajan. We felt there was no substantial evidence, he said.The Indian board president, Sharad Pawar has said he was determined to preserve strong ties between the India and Australia. There is an extremely good relationship between the countries, he told the Melbourne-based Age. There has been a conflict on the field and an issue has been reported by some players, but I dont want to react. It is important it should not spoil the relationship between the countries or the teams. That is not our desire. Jason Buck . PETERSBURG, Fla. Al Del Greco . Houston won 3-0 to advance to face New York in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Last in the game, Di Vaio and Romero got into a shoving match with several Houston players. Romero appeared to elbow and kick Houston defender Kofi Sarkodie. https://www.cheapnfljerseyschina.co/pervis-atkins-jersey-for-sale/ . Jon Montgomerys gold medal in skeleton at the Whistler Sliding Centre and his subsequent auctioning off of a pitcher of beer in the village square elevated him to folk-hero status. Gary Roberts . Marincin has played in two NHL games so far this season with two penalty minutes. The 21-year-old has three goals, four assists and a plus-5 rating in 24 games with the American Hockey Leagues Oklahoma City Barons this season. Walt Clago .5 million, one-year contract on Friday. Hawkins, who turns 41 in December, will compete with Rex Brothers for the closers role at spring training. Green water in pools is something you wont see at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, says a top official.During this past summers Rio Olympics, officials gave up on cleaning a green-tinged water in one of the pools at the Maria Lenk Aquatics Center, so they drained and transferred almost 1 million gallons of clear water from a nearby practice pool in time for the start of synchronized swimming events. An adjacent, smaller pool continued to be used for diving competitions, even though it remained murky. American diver Abby Johnston dubbed it the swamp.But on Monday, FINA president Julio Cesar Maglione told Kyodo news agency that will not happen again in Tokyo, host of the next Summer Games.I visited the place where they are beginning to build the new swimming pool and... it will have all the requirements for an excellent championship because the last condition in Rio was different, Maglione told Kyodo. We are sure that it will be fine here.Back in August, Rio officials blamed a contractor misstake -- dumping hydrogen peroxide into the pool that caused an adverse reaction when it mixed with chlorine -- for venue pools turning green during the Olympics.dddddddddddd Rio 2016 spokesman Mario Andrada called the pool draining a radical measure that was necessary to ensure clear water for both judges and competitors and stressed that the kale-colored water posed no risk to the health of the athletes.Of course it is an embarrassment because we are hosting the Olympic Games, Andrada then said. It should be light blue, transparent. We could have done better in fixing it quickly. We learned a painful lesson the hard way.Tokyos pool venue is being built near the existing Tatsumi International Swimming Center, but there is debate over whether it should hold a 15,000- or 20,000-seat capacity.Information from The Associated Press was used in this report. ' ' '