
The Indian Premier League (IPL) is now cricket’s richest league and a huge global sports thing. But a story from the very first IPL back in 2008 stayed quiet for years. During a game between Mumbai Indians and Kings XI Punjab, MI’s Harbhajan Singh slapped Punjab bowler S. Sreesanth. It became known as slapgate. IPL’s creator and former boss, Lalit Modi, just put out the original, never-before-seen video of what happened between Harbhajan and Sreesanth.
Modi talked with Michael Clarke, the Australian World Cup-winning captain, on the Beyond23 Cricket Podcast. He shared the video, which wasn’t shown on TV back then. The game ended, and the cameras were off. But one of my security cameras caught Bhajji (Harbhajan) smacking Sreesanth. Here’s the video, Modi said before showing it. I’ve kept this private for 18 years.
Harbhajan recently said he was sorry about the slapgate thing with Sreesanth. He wishes he could take it back. The Sreesanth incident is something I regret. If I could erase one moment, it would be that. What happened was wrong, and I shouldn’t have done it. I’ve apologized a lot. What bothered me was, even years later, I was still saying sorry whenever I got the chance. It was a mistake, Harbhajan told Ravichandran Ashwin.
What really stung was meeting his daughter years later. I was talking to her nicely, and she said she didn’t want to talk to me because I hit her dad. It broke my heart, and I almost cried. I wondered what she thought of me. She probably sees me as the guy who hit her father. It made me feel awful. I still apologize to his daughter, Harbhajan said.
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