After the incident became one of the most contentious IPL moments, the IPL slapped Harbhajan five ODI bans and an 11 game IPL suspension. (Image Credit: YouTube/Michael Clarke)
Nearly 18 years since the first ever IPL season took place, a long quieted page in cricketing history has finally been turned. Never before seen footage of the legendary ‘slap gate’ stunt, when Mumbai Indians captain Harbhajan Singh slapped teammate S. Sreesanth was dropped by erstwhile IPL chairman Lalit Modi on Michael Clarke’s Beyond23 Cricket Podcast.
The raw video shows Harbhajan delivering a sudden backhand during a customary handshake line after a match between Mumbai Indians and Kings XI Punjab in 2008, captured only by Modi’s private security camera as official broadcast cameras were switched off. Once mere hearsay and tabloid fodder, the incident now unfolds in stark reality.
Grainy and dramatic, the clip captures Sreesanth stunned and crying, teammates rushing in to step in between them a combustible face off that was one of IPL’s low points. Harbhajan was subsequently suspended for 11 IPL games and five ODIs by the BCCI on charges of conduct breach. The two long since moved on.
Harbhajan has stated on tape, apologetic and saying he would want to erase the incident and saying it over and over again going so far as to recount the emotional impact of running into Sreesanth’s daughter, who told him, ‘I don’t want to talk to you. You hit my dad.’ His sentiment in a sit down interview with Ravichandran Ashwin speaks volumes regarding the continued remorse. Meanwhile, Sreesanth brushed over the encounter in later interviews, referring to Harbhajan as ‘like an elder brother.’ The recurrence of the clip turns legend into concrete history and challenges fresh thinking on sportsmanship, forgiveness, and the role of the media in salvaging public figures’ most human and unvarnished moments. This video viral revelation has us remember: beyond records and awards, some of cricket’s greatest moments can be born out of deep passion, rivalries, and unthinking humanness.
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