Harbhajan pictures taken off hoardings

In what is being seen as a corporate move, Harbhajan Singh's pictures have been taken off all the advertisements that promote the Mumbai Indians, including the team's website.

Reliance Industries, the owners of the franchise, thought this was a sensible move, taking into account public sentiment. Harbhajan was found guilty of slapping Sreesanth in the league game against Punjab last week and was banned for 11 IPL games subsequently.

"When we know a player is not going to be available for the team it really doesn't make sense for us to have his picture," Kaushik Roy, president of branding, Reliance Industries, told Cricinfo.

Roy felt the company decided that as long as Harbhajan was not going to take part in the tournament it would be ideal to not include his pictures in any promotional activities, especially when the pictures were meant to attract the crowds. "So as long he is not going to be playing the matches, there is a clear directive."

Retaining Harbajan's image would amount cheating, Roy felt. "The pictures are for gate sales. You cannot show the pictures of a player who is not playing the game. So there is no use fooling people. That would be unethical advertising."

The team management, meanwhile, is silent on the matter. "It is a corporate decision. In any case it doesn't make sense to have the picture once he is not playing," a top official in the Mumbai team said.

But the franchise is terming the move "temporary", and hopes that if Mumbai's fortunes soar and they make it to the IPL final then Harbhajan will be back on the advertisements. "We hope this will be a temporary arrangement. Mumbai Indians hope to reach the finals, and god willing if that happens, Bhajji will be free to play in that," an official said.

Fearing the move might be termed as controversial the team's brand managers are now planning to introduce new faces as part of their campaign as that would help newcomers gain public recognition.

"The current hoardings featuring Harbhajan Singh, Sachin Tendulkar, Sanath Jayasuriya and Shaun Pollock were put up in the run-up to IPL, because they were the big crowd-pullers," an official said. "But a decision had also been taken that as the IPL progressed, we would give exposure to the younger lot by turning them into recognisable forces through the hoardings."