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Harbhajan Singh remembers IPL slap and how Sreesanth’s daughter now refuses to speak to him
Years after the infamous 2008 slap, the former India spinner says one sentence from Sreesanth’s young daughter still haunts him.
It has been 17 years since Harbhajan Singh slapped Sreesanth during an IPL match, yet the guilt still lingers. Speaking on R Ashwin’s Kutti Stories, the former India off-spinner said he’s tried again and again to make peace with the past. He’s apologised. Reached out. Publicly admitted his mistake.
But nothing stung quite like a recent encounter with Sreesanth’s daughter. A few words from her, he said, “shattered” him more than any consequence he faced back then. “She sees me as the guy who hit her father,” he confessed.
The slap that won’t go away
When asked what decision he would undo from his life, Harbhajan brought up the ‘slapgate’ incident. Back in 2008, Harbhajan, playing for Mumbai Indians, slapped Sreesanth—who was with Kings XI Punjab—after a match. Cameras caught Sreesanth in tears as his teammates comforted him.
The BCCI immediately banned Harbhajan for the rest of the season. Since then, he has repeatedly taken responsibility. Just months ago, he replied to a viral clip on social media, saying: “This wasn’t right bhai. It was my mistake. Galti hui, insaan hu.”
He has owned up to his mistake, again and again. But the shame clearly hasn’t faded. He told Ashwin, “I have been apologizing every opportunity or stage I get. It was a mistake. We all make mistakes, and we hope and try to never repeat such mistakes.”
The line that hit harder than any slap
Harbhajan recalled the conversation with Sreesanth’s daughter in detail. The interaction might have been brief, but it shook him to his core. “What hurt me even after many years was when I met his daughter, and I was talking to her with a lot of love,” he said, “and she said, ‘I don’t want to talk to you. You hit my father.’”
For Harbhajan, this hit like a ton of bricks. “My heart was shattered,” he admitted. “I was on the verge of tears. I was asking myself, what is the impression I’ve left on her? She must be thinking of me in a poor light, right?”
He added that he still tells her he’s sorry. Not just for what happened, but for what she saw in him. Even now, he hopes that as she grows up, she will eventually see him as “her uncle,” willing to support her, rather than just the man who struck her father.
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