Chandigarh, January 15
The City Beautiful will soon have another star as its permanent resident. Impressed by the neat and clean environs of the city, off-spinner Harbhajan Singh has decided to make it his home.

Bhajji, as the ‘offie’ is popularly known, has been keen on settling down in the city for the past several years. However, it was only a few days ago that his agents — Alamgir Properties — finally zeroed in on a house in Sector 9, which he got registered in his name today.

Accompanied by his Income Tax consultant Kapil Khanna, Harbhajan paid a brief visit to the office of the Tehsildar-cum-Registering Authority, Mr H.S. Nagra, in Sector 17, here, to complete the formalities.

Mr Guruanchal Sethi and Mr Amarjit Singh Sethi, who were instrumental in striking the deal said Harbhajan was on a look out for a house in Chandigarh and preferred sectors — two to nine — in the city.

“Ultimately, we found a four-kanal house in Sector 9. Harbhajan gave his nod after seeing the property and the deal was officially signed today,” said Mr Guruanchal Sethi.

Bhajji, attired in black, was continuously busy on his mobile. Initially reluctant to talk about cricket, Bhajji finally did talk. And the conversation, quite obviously, flowed back to the game. This, of course, was no coincidence, especially with someone like Bhajji.

The spin spearhead defended the strategies adopted by captain Rahul Dravid and coach Greg Chappell to shuffle the batting order and induct more pacers in the team as an attempt to get the right balance in the run-up to the World Cup. Reacting to coach and captain’s criticism of the frequent shuffling in the batting order and their strategies which led to a disastrous show in South Africa, Harbhajan said, “It is their job to see what is suitable in a given situation but sometimes things do not work out. Everyone has his own opinion.”

On being asked about his dismissal in the recent South African tour, which was highly criticised, he chose to reserve his comments, “ Let bygones be bygones, we are looking ahead to the eight ODI. These matches become significant as these would be a testing ground for World Cup probables. “As far as I am concerned, I feel fully fit to give my 100 per cent”, he said. About Yuvraj, he says, “ Most probably, he would join us in the later part of the forthcoming ODIs”.

The time is crucial, as India is to play four ODIs against the West Indies later this month and four more against Sri Lanka in February before departing for the World Cup in the Caribbean.