Bhajii shouldn't have crossed Lakshman Rekha: Modi

New Delhi, April 29:: Indian Premier League Chairman and Commissioner Lalit Modi said they have sent a 'strong message' by banning Harbhajan Singh for 11-13 matches and penalising him for close to USD 600,000 (Rs 2.6 crore) for slapping rival pacer S Sreesanth after a match last week. "What has happened is Harbhajan did cross the 'Lakshman Rekha', he should not have done it... Harbhajan should not have crossed the line now that he did, we took immediate action," Modi said. "This is a strong message that we have sent out, we have banned him for close to 13 matches, 11 or 13 depending on how the Mumbai team performs. We have also fined him 100 per cent of his pay cheque and that is close to USD 600,000 dollars (approax Rs 2.6 crore)," he was quotes as saying in a TV channel. "It is not just any other tournament, it is a very serious tournament," he insisted. Asked if the slap incident had affected the tournament, Modi said it did not reduce the euphoria generated and in fact positives could be drawn from it. "I think it (euphoria) is more than enough... but there is a positive side to the incident because the players have taken this game as their own and they are actually fighting out for it as if they would have fought for team India, that's the positive side of it," he said. Modi said the footage of the incident would not be made public because the IPL inquiry did not think it was fair to do so. "It don't thik it is fair for us to put it to the rest of the world. We have decided not to show it to anybody," he said. On letting off Sreesanth with only warning, Modi said he was warned not for his role during the actual incident. "Actually, at the time when the slapping incident took place Sreesanth had not provoked Harbhajan at all but during the matches we heard that there was skirmishes between the players and also during another match in Jaipur, Sreesanth was very aggressive with (Mohammad) Kaif. So he was given a warning based on that," he said.