Match referee Mike Procter has been at the centre of many big controversies, including the Oval Test forfeiture, but he says the race row involving Harbhajan Singh is most testing for him.
MELBOURNE: Match referee Mike Procter has been at the centre of many big controversies, including the high-profile Oval Test forfeiture, but the South African says the race row involving Harbhajan Singh is proving to be most testing for him, personally and professionally.
"Being South African as well, and having seen the effects of racism first hand, it (Harbhajan case) was a really tough call," Procter said.
"It was probably more tough and stressful than the events surrounding The Oval Test, when the match was abandoned. It has been very difficult on a personal and professional level," he was quoted as saying by 'Sydney Morning Herald'.
Procter said the issue at the Sydney Test was also unique because such a situation had never been dealt before.
"(The Oval) was a very unusual day. Everyone in the ICC, including myself and Malcolm (Speed, chief executive), did everything in our power to make something happen, but with the rules of cricket being what they were, there was nothing that could be done. It was, in many ways, an impossible situation."
"But I would say the issues and pressures that came out of Sydney were in many ways greater. Many of the situations that come up have never been dealt with before and, at the end of the day, it is you alone who must come up with the decision. It seems drama follows me wherever I go."
Procter was in Karachi when a suicide bomber detonated an explosive device outside his hotel, prompting New Zealand to abandon their tour of Pakistan. In the subsequent year, he controversially banned then-Pakistani captain Rashid Latif for five-games for claiming a false catch against Bangladesh.
Procter was also appointed match referee for The Oval Test of 2006, which resulted in the first forfeiture in the 129-year history of Test cricket.
Procter's decision to ban Harbhajan for three Tests for allegedly calling Andrew Symonds a 'monkey' during the Sydney Test will come under further scrutiny next week.
Should Procter's original decision be upheld, the prospect of another Indian revolt looms.
"I can't comment specifically about the case, but I will say that, despite some reports to the contrary, I have a good relationship with the Indians," Procter said.
"Now it is in the hands of the ICC, so I will leave it at that."
On ICC's cricket committee chairman Sunil Gavaskar's comments that he took 'the white man's word against that of the brown man' in the Harbhajan case matter, Procter blamed it on poor communication.
"When you arrive in a country, you always feel a little under pressure. You always know that, it will be one country versus another country, with you in the middle. It can be a lonely job, in that sense," Procter said.
"You have to try and see things through other people's eyes, figure out how they might feel in a certain situation. Obviously, I don't speak all the languages that are spoken by Test-playing countries, so that is a difficulty. That can often lead to misunderstandings between two countries, the poor communication."
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