Harbhajan Singh: The former spinner says the video was released under the influence of alcohol or as a joke, and there was no need to make it public.
Former Indian cricketer Harbhajan Singh has expressed his displeasure over the public release of the controversial Slapgate video from the 2008 IPL. The video was shown on Michael Clarke’s Beyond 23 cricket podcast, which also featured former IPL chairman Lalit Modi. In the video, Harbhajan can be seen slapping Sreesanth.
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Harbhajan Singh gave Lalit Modi a lesson
Harbhajan, quoted by the Indian Express, said that Modi probably released the video under the influence of alcohol or as a joke. He admitted that there was no need to release the video and it would have been better left as is.
Harbhajan said, “Honestly, I don’t understand why it needed to be made public.” Perhaps he was under the influence of alcohol or just joking. If I were in his place, I would never have allowed such a video to be released.
He also admitted that his actions at the time were wrong and has already apologized for it. Harbhajan Singh said, “What happened was not right. As a player, I shouldn’t have done that. People learn from their mistakes, and if I had that understanding at the time, I would never have done it.”
Harbhajan said that releasing the video was done for selfish reasons. He believes there should be no purpose in bringing up an incident from 18 years ago. He said, “People have already forgotten that time. Bringing it up again now is wrong. Because of this, I feel bad for what happened then.”
Sreesanth’s wife, Bhuvneshwari Sreesanth, also reacted to the incident, calling it callous and inhumane. She wrote on Instagram that Lalit Modi and Michael Clarke reopened old wounds just for publicity and views. Bhuvneshwari said that Harbhajan and Sreesanth have now moved on in their lives, have become fathers, and yet they are being targeted for the old incident.
