 "Unseen footage of the slapgate incident between Harbhajan Singh and Sreesanth. Image: Beyond23 Cricket Podcast")
The slapgate controversy between Harbhajan Singh and S Sreesanth that shook the inaugural season of the IPL in 2008 has come into the limelight again, as 18 years after the incident, the actual footage of what transpired between the players after the Kings XI Punjab vs Mumbai Indians match has been released.
Lalit Modi , who was the chairman and commissioner of the IPL at that time, has shared the clip of the ugly incident during an interview with former Australian captain Michael Clarke on the Beyond23 Cricket Podcast.
Watch unseen footage of Harbhajan slapping Sreesanth
“The game was over, cameras were shut off,” Modi said. “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,” said Modi, before showing the footage of the actual incident.
“I hadn’t put it out for so long. We have 18 years behind us for this,” he added.
Cricket fans may faintly remember the image of a teary-eyed Sreesanth who made headlines back then. It was a pre-social media era, and hence, the mainstream media was the only provider of all the developments and very little came out as far as footages are concerned.
About this incident, it was reported that an irked Harbhajan Singh, following the defeat of the Mumbai Indians, slapped his then-India teammate Sreesanth. The clip shows that what was reported 18 years ago was the truth.
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More ShortsHarbhajan regrets his act
The episode has been addressed multiple times by Harbhajan in the last 18 years, and he has expressed remorse over the act each time. He recently appeared on the YouTube channel of Ravichandran Ashwin and reflected on the incident again, and defined it as the chapter he would want to remove from his life.
“One thing I’d want to change in my life is that 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 was even years after that incident, I have been apologising every opportunity or stage I get. It was a mistake,” Harbhajan told Ashwin.