KEY POINTS:
Harbhajan Singh, the central figure in the stand-off between cricket's two superpowers, has always had a prickly relationship with the Australian team.
He's been in plenty of scrapes through his 10-year international career, but none approach the magnitude of the allegations of racial abuse against Australian allrounder Andrew Symonds.
Harbhajan, the only son of a Punjabi factory owner, honed his skills as an off-spinner by practising after school in Jalandhar, often when the only light came from the bulb of his father's motor-scooter headlamp.
He made his test debut against Mark Taylor's team in the final match of a three-test series in Bangalore 10 years ago.
It was where he had his first run-in with Ricky Ponting, leading to Harbhajan being fined and reprimanded by South African match referee Peter van der Merwe for a breach of the players' code of conduct.
The young Sikh did not take Ponting's wicket in Bangalore, but he did knock over Darren Lehmann, who was also making his test debut.
Lehmann later became the first (and so far only) Australian cricketer to be punished for using racial abuse (against the Sri Lankans in 2003). Lehmann, who admitted his offence - he could scarcely do otherwise as dozens of witnesses could hear - is president of the Australian Cricketers Association, which is trenchantly backing Ponting in the present row.
By the time Harbhajan next crossed swords with Australia on a test field, in India in 2001, he was an established international bowler with a growing reputation for feistiness.
The year before he'd been expelled from India's cricket academy on disciplinary grounds, and later in 2001 he was fined for dissent and trying to intimidate umpires in South Africa.
But he made his biggest mark against Australia, where he earned his nickname The Turbanator.
He has a high, whip-like action that imparts a huge amount of work on the ball, which is generally delivered flat and fast, not unlike his great Sri Lankan contemporary Muttiah Muralitharan. Like Murali, Harbhajan has also faced questions about the legality of his action, which makes him especially lethal on crumbling surfaces - he took an astonishing 32 wickets against Australia in that three-test series in 2001.
In the second test in Kolkata, which India won after following-on to end Australia's world record-winning streak at 16, he took 13 wickets, including the first test hat-trick by an Indian bowler.
Ponting and Adam Gilchrist were the first two legs of it, both LBW.
Harbhajan's hold over Ponting is extraordinary, and while the Australian captain will be affronted by any suggestion that this influenced his decision to report him for racial abuse in Sydney, it provides plenty of fuel for conspiracy-seekers.
Harbhajan has dismissed the world No 1 batsman eight times in eight tests.
Ponting averages almost 60 in test cricket, but in innings when he falls to Harbhajan, his average is below 10.
No bowler has got Ponting out more often than Harbhajan, and the Australian captain also heads the Turbanator's personal list of victims, closely followed by Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden.
All three of them gave evidence against him in Sunday's night's hearing into the Symonds affair before match referee Mike Procter.
Harbhajan is a star. India's players are indignant he's been found guilty of racial abuse despite his protestations and have gone to the wall for him.
HARBHAJAN BY THE NUMBERS
* Born: July 3, 1980, Jalandhar, Punjab
* Test debut: v Australia, Bangalore, 1998
* Bowling:
* Tests 62
* Wickets 225
* Best bowling: 8/84
* Batsmen most dismissed: R Ponting (Aus) 8 (8 tests); M Hayden (Aus) 7 (9); A Gilchrist (Aus) 7 (9); J Gillespie (Aus) 6 (7); Kamran Akmal (Pak) 5 (7); P Collins (WI) 5 (6); SK Warne (Aus) 5 (6).
- AAP
