Our Bureau
Mumbai
The slapgate controversy that happened more than 17 years ago involving two stars of Indian cricket in Harbhajan Singh and S Sreesanth, has reignited after the video of the whole incident recently came out. Lalit Modi, the former chairman of the Indian Premier League (IPL), leaked the controversial video. However, Harbhajan Singh believes that it shouldn’t have come out and was done for selfish reasons.
The controversy that became the talking point of the first season of IPL was reignited when Lalit Modi talked about the incident on former Australian captain, Michael Clarke’s ‘Beyond 23’ podcast. The video of the incident had never been made public but after the topic was discussed in the podcast, Modi decided to release it.
While Sreesanth’s wife has already slammed Modi for releasing the video, Harbhajan has called out the malicious intent behind the release. The off-spinner stated that people had forgotten about the whole incident but for selfish reasons people are bringing it out again.
“The way the video has been leaked, it’s wrong. It shouldn’t have happened. They might have a selfish motive behind it. Something that happened 18 years ago, people have forgotten, and they are reminding people about it,” Harbhajan said.
Harbhajan expressed the guilt he has for how things folded out back then and admitted that he feels ashamed about it. He stated that it was an unfortunate incident and he has apologised for his mistakes. The former cricketer also asked Lord Ganesh to forgive him for the mistake that he made.
“I feel bad for whatever happened. We were playing, and everyone had things going on in their mind. Mistakes happened, and we do feel ashamed about it,” he said.
“Yes, the video has gone viral. It was an unfortunate incident, and I have said on many occasions that I made a mistake. Humans make mistakes, and I did one too. I have requested Lord Ganesh to forgive me if I make a mistake again. Mistakes happen,” Harbhajan added.
