The first edition of the Indian Premier League was rocked by scandal after Harbhajan Singh slapped Sreesanth. The Mumbai Indians captain was handed a ban for the rest of the tournament while Sreesanth ended up in tears following the heated altercation. Details have remained scarce about the incident with some suggesting the Kings XI Punjab pacer had provoked Harbhajan with some on-field remarks. The matter came back into public discourse yet again on Friday as Lalit Modi released footage of the incident for the first time.
“I’ll tell you what happened. I will give you the video. I have kept it back. Bhajji is a very dear friend of mine. I love him. It happened on the field, and I was there. It was Bhajji, and it was Sreesanth. The game was over, and the cameras were shut off. Only one of my security cameras was on,” Modi told Michael Clarke on the Beyond23 podcast.
Footage reveals…
The IPL founder said the infamous ‘slap-gate’ incident took place just after the match — as the players were shaking hands and ‘high-fiving’ each other. Modi recalled that Harbhajan had simply said ‘come here’ and backhanded Sreesanth when the two came face to face.
The hitherto unseen video has gone viral with many on the internet finally finding closure after 17 years. The footage shows Singh landing a backhanded slap while the two teams were shaking hands. Players from both teams appeared to be momentarily shocked before Sreesanth charged furiously towards Harbhajan. He was grabbed by Irfan Pathan and Mahela Jayawardene to avoid a further escalation. Pathan could also been approaching Singh while the latter furiously pointed outside the ground.
What have Harbhajan Singh and Sreesanth said?
Both Harbhajan Singh and Sreesanth have addressed the issue in the nearly two decades since IPL season 1.
“This wasn’t right bhai. It was my mistake. Shouldn’t have done this. But galti hui…insaan hu, bhagwaan nahi,” Singh wrote on X earlier this year.
“Whenever I had any important spell or something I was not doing well I used to go and hug Bhajji pa. And somehow it is the vibration or maybe the positivity which paaji has got, I always used to get the performance out…So when that incident happened, I was shocked. I didn’t cry because of pain but because of heart. I could not take the fact that he would do it and I was not worried about who was watching,” Sreesanth had explained on ‘The Ranveer Show’ last year.