World cricket’s ‘Turbanator,’ has developed a snag. It has already caused some damage with the cancellation of a lucrative county contract. And if sports medicine expert and orthopaedic surgeon Dr Anant Joshi is to believed, Harbhajan Singh, may have to undergo surgery on his ailing right-hand ring finger.‘‘The injury appears quite similar to what Sachin Tendulkar had,’’ Joshi said while speaking to The Indian Express this afternoon. ‘‘He (Harbhajan) has tried giving it rest and it has not worked. He may now have to undergo an active treatmemt, which means, surgery.’’The Indian off-spinner will be out of action for nearly three months if he undergoes the surgery. He is likely to seek the same doctors as Tendulkar did in the United States. Tendulkar was operated upon on April 29 by orthopaedic surgeons Dror Paley and Steven Friedman, who also specialise in hand reconstruction, at the Sinai Hospital in Baltimore.Dwelling on the causes of the injury, the doctor said, ‘‘such injuries are caused due to repeated stress over a time which forces the ligaments to stretch out.’’ Bowling and fielding are the departments which put the maximum stress on the fingers, he added.Dr Joshi also pointed out that,‘‘such injuries are not serious in the sense that will handicap a player totally. But it is the persistent pain which distracts the player from giving his 100 per cent.’’The injury forced Harbhajan to cancel his contract with Lancashire. The 23-year-old called off the deal just hours before his departure to London on Friday on the advise of senior players of the Indian team and his family members.
