April 26: The inaugural Indian Premier League (IPL) runs till June 1, but Harbhajan Singh may have no role in the remainder of the multi-million dollar Twenty20 action.

The IPL has “temporarily suspended” the short-fused Sardar after footage from one of the 23 cameras in use during last night’s Kings XI Punjab-Mumbai Indians’ clash in Mohali confirmed that he’d slapped Sreesanth.

Harbhajan, who completed a decade of international cricket last month, was captaining the Mumbai Indians in buddy Sachin Tendulkar’s absence.

The footage has almost surely sealed Harbhajan’s fate and match referee Farokh Engineer, who’ll conduct a hearing in Delhi on Monday, has no choice but to hand out exemplary punishment.

The IPL’s matches don’t have international status, but the League is governed by the International Cricket Council’s code of conduct and the MCC’s Spirit of Cricket.

Harbhajan, who featured in the heat-generating “monkey row” on Team India’s recent tour of Australia, has also been served a showcause notice by the BCCI.

Almost three years ago, Harbhajan’s home association, Punjab, had acted similarly when he publicly backed Sourav Ganguly in his war against Greg Chappell.

Harbhajan’s reply must reach BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah by Monday.

“Look, Harbhajan is one of the players on contract and has to explain his conduct. His reply will be placed before the disciplinary committee, which is headed by the president (Sharad Pawar),” Shah said.

Pawar, one learns, is quite angry.

Till the footage surfaced late this evening, the official stand was that Harbhajan could play tomorrow’s match against the Deccan Chargers.

Till early this afternoon, it appeared that the players in question (who share the Team India dressing room) had sorted things out. However, Kings XI Punjab coach Tom Moody, an Australian, had strong views on the incident.

Sreesanth (highly temperamental himself) may regard Harbhajan as an “elder brother,” but that didn’t stop Moody from initiating the move to lodge a formal complaint against “an unprovoked attack.”

“It seems Sreesanth and Harbhajan had resolved things after the latter’s apology in the dressing room, but Moody was adamant that Harbhajan shouldn’t get away with slapping a fellow-cricketer,” a source told The Telegraph.

So, the Kings XI Punjab had a team meeting at 2.00pm and a complaint was then lodged with the IPL brass.

That got forwarded to Engineer, who has been having an eventful assignment. He’d been at the Eden last Sunday.

“What’s the difference between Harbhajan and Shoaib Akhtar’s act of hitting Mohammed Asif with the bat just prior to the World Twenty20? Nothing… Harbhajan has been a problem child, ignoring advice that he must stay cool,” said a senior in the BCCI.

Of late, Harbhajan has become the iconic Sachin’s “best friend” and that appears to have given him the belief he could get away with anything.

Right now, though, Harbhajan looks headed for the gallows.