After 17 years in the IPL archives, former commissioner of the league Lalit Modi finally released the video footage of Harbhajan Singh slapping S Sreesanth.
For almost 18 years, the video footage of the infamous IPL slapgate incident between Harbhajan Singh and S Sreesanth stayed hidden. It was archived. All these years, no one quite knew what had happened, except the fact that Harbhajan slapped Sreesanth after Punjab Kings (then Kings XI Punjab) defeated the Mumbai Indians in a match from the first-ever edition of the Indian Premier League. When the incident took place, the coverage had cut to commercials, and when the live streaming came back on, the visuals of Sreesanth crying sent absolute shockwaves through the cricketing world. These were Indian teammates, playing for the same team. What could have happened that senior pro Harbhajan was forced to raise his hand on his younger teammate? Of course, a lot of water has flown under the bridge since. Harbhajan and Sreesanth have since buried the hatchet and gone on to become good friends. However, after 17 long years, the clip that sent ripples through the tournament is finally released when former IPL commissioner Lalit Modi aired it on Michael Clarke’s Beyond23 podcast.
The year 2008 was unforgettable in Indian cricket. It saw the birth of the Indian Premier League which has, since then, went on to become the world’s biggest T20 cricket tournament.
But, beyond the novelty of the format and tournament, what stayed in the minds of the viewers was an infamous incident on the field after a match between the Punjab Kings XI and Mumbai Indians in Mohali. KXIP pacer S. Sreesanth, reportedly, got under the MI spinner’s skin to such an extent during the match, that after the game, when the players were shaking hands, Harbhajan allegedly slapped Sreesanth.
The incident was not caught on camera then, but footage minutes later showed Sreesanth in tears and other players consoling him. Harbhajan was suspended for the remainder of the season, banned for 11 games and his match fees forfeited.
In a podcast with Australian World Cup-winning captain Michael Clarke, Lalit Modi shared the video, saying, “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.
“I hadn’t put it out for so long. We have 18 years behind us for this,” said Lalit Modi, on the Beyond23 Cricket Podcast.
Interestingly, Harbhajan had recently expressed regret over the slapgate, in an interaction with Ravichandran Ashwin on the latter’s YouTube channel. Admitting what he did was wrong, he said he wished he could remove the incident from his career and life.
He added that he had apologised over “200 times” for the incident. “What hurt me even after many years was when I met his daughter and I was talking to her with a lot of love and she said, ‘I don’t want to talk to you. You hit my father’,” Harbhajan told Ashwin.
“My heart was shattered and I was on the verge of tears. I was asking myself what is the impression I have 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.”
