Indian Premier League is currently one of the biggest and richest sports competitions, where players from all over the world come together to play against each other. This saga began in 2008 with its first edition. The complete season was peak entertainment, but one episode was kept under cover until now.
It was the 10th match of the season, played in Mohali between Mumbai Indians and Kings XI Punjab, where MI’s stand-in captain Harbhajan Singh slapped his Indian team partner Sreesanth, who was playing for Punjab.
This incident was later known as ‘Slapgate’, a term derived from the infamous ‘Monkeygate’ scandal of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in January 2008.
Lalit Modi Releases the Hidden Footage
The video of the slapping incident had never been released for all these years. However, Lalit Modi, the brain behind the IPL, unveiled the raw footage during a podcast with former Australian captain Michael Clarke.
In the interview on Clarke’s Cricket Podcast Beyond 23, Modi released the exact footage when Harbhajan slapped Sreesanth while players of both teams were shaking hands after the match ended. The footage was not part of the original television broadcast.
Before playing the clip, Lalit Modi said:
“The game was over, cameras were shut off. One of my security cameras was on. It caught the incident between Sreesanth and Bhajji (Harbhajan), and Bhajji just gives him a back-hander. Here’s the video.”
He added, “I hadn’t put it out for so long. We have 18 years behind us for this.”
The footage shows Harbhajan visibly angry as he slapped Sreesanth with his backhand. The latter couldn’t understand why it happened and stood still. Sreesanth was later seen crying while his teammates consoled him but did not react aggressively.
Moments later, Harbhajan returned and pushed Sreesanth slightly, which angered him, but his teammates restrained him from reacting further.
Sreesanth’s On The Incident
Speaking on a podcast recently, Sreesanth recalled: “When that incident happened, I was shocked. I didn’t cry because of pain but because of my heart. I could not take the fact that he would do it and I was not worried about who was watching. So maybe the kid in me, as a younger brother, if an elder brother was shouting, he had all the right. Because before the game he had actually told me not to go overboard with my aggression against them.”
Harbhajan’s About The Incident
Harbhajan Singh, in a candid conversation with Ravichandran Ashwin, expressed regret about the ‘Slapgate’ incident, admitting it remains the darkest memory of his career.
“One thing I’d want to change in my life is that incident with Sreesanth. I want to remove that incident from my career. What transpired was wrong and I shouldn’t have done what I did. I apologised 200 times. Even years after that incident, I have been apologising at every opportunity. It was a mistake,” Harbhajan said.
He further revealed how the incident haunted him later:
“What hurt me even after many years was when I met his daughter and I was talking to her with a lot of love, she said, ‘I don’t want to talk to you. You hit my father.’ My heart was shattered and I was on the verge of tears. I asked myself what impression I had left on her. She must be thinking of me in a poor light, right? She sees me as the guy who hit her father. I felt so bad. I still apologise to his daughter.”
Harbhajan-Rayudu Fight
This was not the only controversial moment for Harbhajan in the IPL. In 2016, during a match against the Rising Pune Supergiants, he had a heated argument with his own teammate Ambati Rayudu over a fielding lapse. Harbhajan got visibly angry at Rayudu, which once again brought his on-field temperament into the spotlight.
