The founder of the Indian Premier League (IPL), its first chairman and the league commissioner, Lalit Modi, released the unseen footage of the slapgate from the inaugural edition of the cash-rich tournament. Former India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh had slapped ex-India pacer Sreesanth during the customary handshakes between the two sides, following the Match No 10 of the 2008 edition of the IPL between the then Kings XI Punjab and the Mumbai Indians in Mohali.
The incident almost immediately brought the world's attention to the IPL since it happened very early into the first-ever season of the IPL and now the video has been released after more than 17 years from the season by Modi himself on Michael Clarke's Beyond23 Cricket Podcast. Clarke enquired of Modi if Harbhajan actually slapped him and the former IPL chairman quickly responded, "It happened. Absolutely. And I’ll tell you what happened."
"One of my security cameras was on because I was walking onto the field, and it caught the moment. As players were exchanging handshakes, Bhajji just looked at Sreesanth, said something, and gave him a backhander. That’s what the footage shows," Modi added, revealing that one of his own camerapersons captured what the television cameras missed and kept the video "back for 18 years."
"I haven’t put it out for so long. But yes, it happened,” Modi further said. Sreesanth was inconsolable after the incident as his teammates tried to calm him down. In the video, it could be seen that Harbhajan came to reconcile with Sreesanth but the then Kings XI Punjab pacer wasn't having any of that.
Watch the video here:
The consequences were instant for Harbhajan, who was suspended for the whole season, facing an 11-match ban, after being found guilty of misconduct. Later, Harbhajan had apologised and the two reconciled and were also part of India's World Cup-winning squad in 2011 together.
