Indian Premier League (IPL), the name is itself enough to grab everyone's attention around the world. While IPL is known to be a perfect breeding ground for Indian Cricket Team's upcoming talents, it has also been marred with controversies.
One of the most infamous one being Harbhajan Singh-Sreesanth Slapgate controversy.
During IPL 2008, Harbhajan Singh who was playing for Mumbai Indians back then, slapped Kings XI Punjab (Punjab Kings) speedster S Sreesanth after the match and that too in the middle of the ground.
While video Sreesanth crying in the stadium is etched to the IPL followers, the exact footage where 'Bhajji' slapped the 'Kerala Express' was never made public by the BCCI, IPL Council or by the broadcasters.
Now, for the first time, Harbhajan Singh slapgate video has been made public and that too in IPL founder Lalit Modi's podcast with former Australian cricketer Michael Clarke.
Lalit Modi shared the video and told that this footage has never come before the world.
In the podcast, Lalit Modi said, "The match was over, the cameras were turned off. But one of my security cameras captured the incident. It is clearly visible in it that Bhajji (Harbhajan) slapped Sreesanth with a back-hander. I did not release this video for so many years, but now after almost 18 years I have brought it out."
Recently, Harbhajan Singh had shared his thoughts about this incident. Team India's veteran spinner had said in an interview with Ravichandran Ashwin on his YouTube channel that the one moment in my life that I want to change is the incident of slapping Sreesanth.
"If I get a chance, I will remove it from my life. What happened was wrong and I should not have done this. I apologized for that hundreds of times. Even today, whenever I get a chance, I apologize. This was my biggest mistake."
Harbhajan further said that he still bears the burden of this incident. He told that once when he met Sreesanth's daughter, she started avoiding talking to him and said, "I do not want to talk to you, because you hit my father."
"Hearing this from her broke my heart. Tears rolled down my eyes. I started thinking what kind of image I have left in her mind? She is seeing me as the person who slapped her father. I felt very bad thinking this and I still apologize for that."