‘You Hit My Father, I Don’t Want to Talk to You…’

If there’s one thing that iconic spinner Harbhajan Singh would erase from his career history, it is the slap he gave his Team India colleague and IPL rival Sreesanth way back in 2008.

The ‘slapgate’ incident was one of the negative stand-outs of the tournament. Harbhajan Singh, who was captaining Mumbai Indians, slapped the Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings) pacer Sreesanth after a match in Mohali, reducing the latter to tears, and earning himself a tournament-long ban.

During a recent talk show with Ashwin, Harbhajan Singh recalled that he had apologised for his actions on countless occasions and on numerous platforms, but said the incident continued to dog him. Though both he and Sreesanth have put the sordid episode behind them and they now share a good relationship, Harbhajan shared a incident with Sreesanth’s daughter that made him feel ashamed of himself. “What hurt me even after many years was when I met his daughter and I was talking to her with a lot of love, but she said, ‘I don’t want to talk to you. You hit my father.’ My heart was shattered… what is the impression I’ve left on her? She sees me as the guy who hit her father. I felt so bad.”

“One thing I want to change in my life is that with Sreesanth. What happened was wrong and I shouldn’t have done what I did. I apologised 200 times. Even years after that incident, I have been apologising every opportunity or stage I get. It was a mistake.

Harbhajan on Ashwin’s show, Kutty Story