We all make mistakes in our lives — sometimes small, sometimes big — but there are certain mistakes which we feel we should have avoided at any cost and in an interview, the former Indian cricketer Harbhajan Singh talked about one such mistake of his life. Yes, you guessed it right — it was slapping S Sreesanth.
In a candid and emotional revelation, former Indian cricketer Harbhajan Singh admitted that if he could erase one moment from his life, it would be the shocking altercation with teammate S Sreesanth during the inaugural IPL season in 2008. Harbhajan Singh shared this regretful memory in a conversation with Ravichandran Ashwin on his YouTube series Kutti Stories, where he opened up about the long-standing pain and remorse that still follows him.
He recounted the incident with heavy regret, calling it one of the darkest moments of his career. Despite the competitive heat of the game, Harbhajan Singh acknowledged that what he did was wrong and inexcusable. Though he apologised multiple times to Sreesanth, the emotional wound deepened when Sreesanth’s young daughter Sreesanvika refused to talk to him years later.
She simply told him, “I don’t want to talk to you. You hit my father.” That moment, Harbhajan said, broke him completely. He expressed how deeply it hurt to be seen as a villain by a child, especially the one he was speaking to with love and affection. He still hopes that one day she will see him differently not as the man who slapped her father but as someone who cares and would always stand by her.
The slapgate incident unfolded after a match between Mumbai Indians and Kings XI Punjab in Mohali in 2008. Following Mumbai’s loss, tensions flared when Sreesanth reportedly teased Bhajji, provoking an emotional outburst that ended in an open-hand slap. The shocking moment became one of the earliest controversies of the IPL, especially after Sreesanth was caught on camera sobbing as teammates consoled him. The fallout was swift, Harbhajan Singh was banned for the rest of the season and the image of Sreesanth’s tears got etched into cricket fans’ memories.
Despite having buried the hatchet publicly and moved on in their professional lives, the moment continues to haunt Harbhajan Singh. His heartfelt apology is now directed not just at Sreesanth but also to his daughter, hoping to rebuild the image that one impulsive moment nearly destroyed.
