Home
Former Indian Premier League (IPL) chairman Lalit Modi has stirred up controversy by releasing the video of Harbhajan Singh slapping S Sreesanth during a heated moment, which was kept under the wraps for 17 years. Many including Harbhajan have slammed Modi and former Australia captain Michael Clarke for reopening old wounds. The match referee during the infamous Mumbai Indians and Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings), former India wicketkeeper-batter Farokh Engineer was surprised to see the video being made public after a long time.
"I'm surprised that the footage has emerged after all these years. As match referee for that particular match, I maintained confidentiality throughout and didn't speak about the contents of the incident even to the best of my friends in the media," Engineer told Mid-Day.
Since the unfortunate incident, the T20 World Cup 2007 and ODI World Cup 2011-winning teammates have put their differences behind. Harbhajan regrets slapping Sreesanth. He recently revealed in a conversation with Ravichandran Ashwin that he was on the verge of tears when Sreesanth's daughter refused to talk to him. Engineer said that he did his job with dignity and players have put the unpleasantries behind them, indicating there was no need to release the video.
"I had a job to do as match referee and I believe I did it [well] with dignified silence. It’s a thing of the past, and I’m sure both players have long buried their differences. Like many other things in cricket, it was done in the heat of the moment. Harbhajan is a good friend. We move on," the 87-year-old added.
Bhogle recalls a pact made 17 years ago
After the video spread like wildfire on social media, veteran commentator and broadcasters, Harsha Bhogle revealed that it was agreed upon that the video won’t come out in public domain.
“Interesting that the Harbhajan-Sreesanth video has found its way out after 17 years. Very few of us had seen it and we had given our word that it would stay out of the public domain because the IPL was in its first year and it wouldn't have been the best bit of news for it,” Bhogle wrote on X.
While Harbhajan and Sreesanth’s wife Bhuvneshwari have slammed Modi and Clarke for releasing the video, the pacer is yet to respond to the released video.
ADVERTISEMENT
