“Harbhajan has already suffered heavily as he was banned for 11 matches in the IPL, which is also a BCCI backed event. I feel the BCCI should have let him off with a warning and not penalised him once again,” the Jalandhar-based coach said over phone.

The BCCI banned the spinner on Wednesday for five ODIs for slapping his India teammate S Sreesanth and warned him of a life ban for any further misconduct on his part.

Arora, who has coached the cricketer since his early days, felt that Board should have taken a lenient view after the Indian Premier League banned him from the entire tournament besides fining him close to 3 crore.

Meanwhile, Harbhajan’s mother Avtar Kaur tried to evade a direct response on the matter but said, “whatever the Board has done must be right.” “I am learning about this (the ban) through you and have nothing more to say,” Kaur said as she hurried her way into her Jalandhar residence.

Chairman of the Punjab Cricket Association’s coaching committee, D P Azad also felt that the Board should have taken a 'lenient view'.