NEW DELHI — The long-simmering feud between two former Indian cricket stars has erupted once again, with the pace bowler S. Sreesanth declaring that he has cut all ties with his former teammate Harbhajan Singh, accusing him of profiting from the infamous “slapgate” incident that marred the inaugural season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2008.
In an interview with the Malayalam news outlet Mathrubhumi, Sreesanth, 43, said that Harbhajan, 45, had appeared in a television advertisement that humorously referenced the on-field altercation. According to Sreesanth, Harbhajan earned between 8 million and 10 million rupees (approximately $95,000 to $119,000) from the advertisement, a move that Sreesanth said had reopened old wounds and permanently fractured their relationship.
“I have never spoken about Bhajji in any interview. This is the first time,” Sreesanth told Mathrubhumi, using Harbhajan’s nickname. “Until recently, there were no problems, but he made an ad about it once again. He made around ₹80 lakh to ₹1 crore from it. He then called me and asked me to post a story about it. I told him, ‘I’ll forgive, but I’ll never forget.’”
The Advertisement That Broke the Bond
The commercial, made for a retail brand, shows Harbhajan yelling at a group of people who are struggling to fix electronic equipment and instructing them, “Sahi se thappad lagao, sab theek ho jata hai,” “Slap them properly, you can fix everything.” Sreesanth said the advertisement crossed a line that he could not accept, especially because the two had appeared to reconcile in recent years.
“I used to call him a brother,” Sreesanth said. “But in the last one or two months he did that ad, and now I have blocked him on Instagram. My parents have taught me to forgive but never forget. I don’t have any complaints against him, nor do I need him. May God bless him and his family.”
He added that Harbhajan’s repeated public apologies now ring hollow. “In many interviews, even with Ashwin, he talked about my daughter. People will think, ‘Oh, what a great person he is.’ He might be a great person. But for me, from my time playing for India until now, it is all an act. That act is something I do not accept.”
What Was ‘Slapgate’?
The incident dates to April 2008, when the IPL was in its first season. After a match in Mohali between the Mumbai Indians (led by Harbhajan) and the Kings XI Punjab (for whom Sreesanth played), players were exchanging post-match pleasantries when an angry Harbhajan slapped Sreesanth. Television cameras captured Sreesanth in tears, making the moment one of the first “viral” controversies of the IPL era.
Harbhajan was banned for the remainder of the season and had his entire match fee forfeited. Over the years, the two had appeared to move past the episode. Harbhajan apologised repeatedly, including during an appearance on Ravichandran Ashwin’s YouTube channel, where he said, “What transpired was wrong and I should not have done what I did. I apologised 200 times.”
The controversy resurfaced last year when former IPL chairman Lalit Modi released previously unseen high-definition footage of the altercation. At that time, both players criticised Modi and said the matter had been resolved. But Sreesanth’s latest remarks suggest the rift remains far from healed.
Parallel Lives Off the Field
Both men have built second careers outside cricket.
Sreesanth, a member of India’s 2007 World Twenty20 and 2011 World Cup-winning squads, was handed a life ban by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in 2013 for his alleged involvement in the IPL spot-fixing scandal. That ban was reduced to seven years in August 2019 and ended in September 2020, allowing him to return to competitive cricket. During his exile, Sreesanth entered politics, contesting the 2016 Kerala Assembly elections on a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ticket from the Thiruvananthapuram constituency. He lost to the Congress candidate, V. S. Sivakumar, by 11,710 votes.
Harbhajan, who took more than 700 international wickets in a career that spanned 1998 to 2016, also turned to politics. He was nominated to the Rajya Sabha (India’s upper house of parliament) by the Aam Aadmi Party in 2022, but on Friday, a day before Sreesanth’s interview was published, Harbhajan left the AAP and joined the BJP.
A Final Goodbye
For Sreesanth, the advertisement was the last straw. “If someone wrongs you, you should forgive them, but never forget,” he said. “If you forget, they will do the same thing again. He is the biggest example of that. There is no doubt about it.”
He said he now has “no relationship with that person.” The once-close teammates, who celebrated World Cup victories together, have finally gone their separate ways, not with a handshake, but with a blocked Instagram account and a very public farewell.
