S Sreesanth was crying after being slapped by Harbhajan in an IPL Game
Harbhajan Singh, playing for Mumbai, slapped his fellow Indian teammate S Sreesanth after the match. The cameras even caught Sreesanth in tears, creating a huge buzz. The incident raised many questions about what caused such a clash between two well-known players. So, what actually happened that day? Let’s take a simple look at this unforgettable IPL controversy.
On 25 April 2008, Mumbai Indians and Kings XI Punjab faced each other in the 10th clash of the IPL, which was being played at Mohali. Harbhajan Singh was the stand-in captain for Mumbai Indians, as Sachin Tendulkar was not available during the match. Kings XI Punjab stepped out to bat first, as the home ground advantage allowed the team to score 182 runs in 20 overs, losing all the wickets. Kumar Sangakkara dominated with the bat, scoring 94 runs off 56 balls, as Harbhajan Singh took 3 wickets for the Mumbai Indians.
Coming down to chase the massive target with one of their main batters short, Mumbai Indians struggled to perform well and ended up losing quick wickets. Robin Uthappa (21 runs off 18 balls), Dwayne Bravo (23 runs off 21 balls), and Shaun Pollock (22 runs off 21 balls) were the only batters to cross the 20 runs mark. As a result, Mumbai Indians lost the game by a big margin of 66 runs, and Kumar Sangakkara was given the Player of the Match Award. The match was definitely a lot intense, but an incident after the game caught the attention of fans and even the media.
After the match between Kings XI Punjab and Mumbai Indians came to an end, players were seen greeting each other happily, shaking hands, and even having friendly conversations. But suddenly, Sreesanth was seen crying heavily in the camera as the other players from the Punjab team came down to give him a shoulder. This caught the attention of fans and even the commentators, as the reason for his emotions was unknown.
It was later revealed that the stand-in captain of Mumbai Indians, Harbhajan Singh, got into an altercation with Sreesanth after the game, which resulted in Harbhajan slapping him on the field. Sreesanth and Harbhajan Singh already had some alterations during the international match against South Africa, but this time things got out of hand. It was also reported from close sources that there were already some heated exchanges during the game between Robin Uthappa and Sreesanth, as Pollock also celebrated aggressively after taking Uthappa’s wicket. Some reports even say that Harbhajan was already upset with Mumbai’s loss, and he took out his anger by slapping Sreesanth.
Yuvraj Singh, who was the captain of Kings XI Punjab at that time, also revealed that Harbhajan Singh apologised immediately after this incident. However, Sreesanth went on to report about the same to the Kings XI Punjab franchise, along with the owners Preity Zinta and Ness Wadia. He also denied that the words were exchanged between him and Robin Uthappa following his wicket by Shaun Pollock.
Following the slap incident between Harbhajan Singh and Sreesanth, the news quickly spread across the internet and the Punjab Cricket Association was disappointed with the actions of Harbhajan Singh on the field. This incident was also investigated by Farokh Engineer, who was the match referee, and upon investigation, he handed a 100% match fee fine to Harbhajan Singh and also handed him a ban for the remaining 11 matches of the Mumbai Indians in the IPL. Along with that, this ban was extendable to 13 games if Mumbai Indians reached the semi-finals and finals.
On the other hand, Sreesanth was just given a warning by the match referee for the altercation which took place between him and Robin Uthappa on the field. Mumbai Indians coach Lalchand Rajput was also booked by the match referee under a Level 2 offence, as he was also fined 50% of the match fees. The reason for imposing a fine on him was that he stood behind Harbhajan Singh when he slapped Sreesanth, and he didn’t even attempt to stop him. Lalit Modi said, “Rajput was right behind Harbhajan when the incident took place. He didn’t take any steps to restrain him. He has been fined 50% of his match fee”.
Sreesanth has reacted several times to the incident, which took place between him and Harbhajan Singh is also known as the slap gate scandal. He once again opened up about the same recently in “The Ranveer Show” where the hosts asked about the incident. Responding to the same, Sreesanth said, “If you look at it, it was a 30-second video or something, but the media showed it as if”. He indirectly targeted the media for putting forward the incident on a great scale and showcasing Harbhajan Singh as a villain.
Later, Sreesanth talked about the bond between him and Harbhajan:
Yeah, yeah. Unbelievable. So I will say Bhajji pa. Even now I address him as “Bhajji pa” and he is somebody who is always… 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.
When the hosts asked the reason which left Sreesanth in tears after the game, he said:
So when that incident happened, I was shocked. I didn’t cry because of pain but because of the heart. I could not take the fact that he would do it, and I was not worried about who was watching. So maybe the kid in me, as a younger brother, if an elder brother was shouting, and he had all the right because before the game he had actually told me that don’t go overboard with your aggression against us.
Although the incident was long ago, Harbhajan Singh also apologised for the same, knowing that his actions were not at all acceptable on the cricket field. Fans have also seen him apologising for the same event across social media platforms. Recently, a Twitter user tagged him regarding the slapgate scandal, with a full video of the incident attached to the same.
Harbhajan Singh responded by saying, “This wasn’t right bhai. It was my mistake. Shouldn’t have done this. But Galti hui Insaan hu Bhagwaan nahi”. He also apologised for the same when an incident took place in 2023 between Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir after RCB defeated LSG in a thriller.
Despite the incident between Harbhajan Singh and Sreesanth, it cannot be denied that they had great on-field chemistry, having also represented the Indian cricket team for several years. They have also played a crucial role for the Indian cricket team in both the 2007 T20 World Cup and the 2011 ODI World Cup. Even after an altercation in the IPL, the bond between them still remains unaffected.