Harbhajan was suspended for the remainder of the season and slapped with an 11-match ban.
Bhuvneshwari Sreesanth, wife of former India pacer Sreesanth, has lambasted the former IPL chairman Lalit Modi and the former Australian captain Michael Clarke for releasing the infamous “slap-gate” scandal video, also involving Harbhajan Singh.
The controversy erupted again after Modi appeared on Clarke’s Beyond 23 podcast, where he revealed the unseen footage of the 2008 altercation video. The clip that was reportedly taken from the security cameras available in the stadium was displayed during the show.
In the video, Harbhajan was visible striking Sreesanth with the back of his hand following an IPL clash between the Mumbai Indians and the Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings) in Mohali in 2008. Sreesanth couldn’t hold his tears and broke down on the field before teammates and opposition players, including former Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene and India pacer Irfan Pathan, rushed to calm him down.
Reacting to the video that came to the surface after 17 years, Bhuvneshwari took to Instagram to issue a statement, allegedly accusing both Modi and Clarke of chasing attention from where both players had moved on from.
“Shame on you, Lalit Modi and Michael Clarke. You people are not even human to drag up something from 2008 just for your own cheap publicity and views. Both @sreesanthnair36 and Harbhajan have long moved on; they are fathers now with school-going children, and yet you try to throw them back into an old wound. Absolutely disgusting, heartless, and inhuman,” she wrote.
Over the years, Harbhajan himself admitted the incident was one of his biggest regrets. Even Sreesanth has repeatedly said he has forgiven him and has nothing to say on it.
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In a recent interaction with Ravichandran Ashwin, Harbhajan revealed a heartbreaking moment when Sreesanth’s daughter refused to talk to him, citing the slapgate incident as its reason.
“One thing I’d want to change in my life is the incident with Sreesanth. I want to remove that incident from my career. That is the incident I would change from my list. What transpired was wrong, and I shouldn’t have done what I did. I apologised 200 times. What I felt so bad about was that even years after that incident, I have been apologising at every opportunity or stage I get. It was a mistake,” said Harbhajan on Kutti Stories with Ash.
“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.’ My heart was shattered, and I was on the verge of tears. I was asking myself, what impression I’ve 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 that I can’t do anything,” he added.
Despite the incident, both played together for India and won the 2011 ODI World Cup. Notably, they had also won the inaugural 2007 T20 World Cup in South Africa before the incident.
