Bhuvneshwari Kumari, wife of former India cricketer S. Sreesanth, criticised IPL founder Lalit Modi and former Australia captain Michael Clarke after an unfiltered video of the 2008 IPL ‘slapgate’ incident resurfaced. The clip aired on the Beyond23 Cricket Podcast on Friday, August 29. It shows Harbhajan Singh slapping Sreesanth after a match between Punjab Kings and Mumbai Indians in Mohali during the IPL’s first season.
Taking to Instagram, Bhuvneshwari called out Modi and Clarke for dragging up old wounds. She wrote, “Shame on you @lalitkmodi and @michaelclarkeofficial. You people are not even human to drag up something from 2008 just for your own cheap publicity and views. Both @sreesanthnair36 and Harbhajan have long moved on, they are fathers now with school-going children, and yet you try to throw them back into an old wound. Absolutely disgusting, heartless, and inhuman.”
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In a separate Instagram story, she further stated that the incident has caused pain to their family. “@sreesanthnair36 has rebuilt his life with dignity and grace after every hardship he faced. As his wife, and as the mother of his children, it is deeply painful for our family to see this resurface after 18 long years. Families are being forced to relive trauma that was buried decades ago only so you can chase views. This doesn’t just hurt the players, it scars their innocent children who now have to face questions and shame for no fault of theirs,” she wrote. “You should be sued for doing something so cheap and inhumane. Sreesanth is a man of strength and character, and no video can take that dignity away from him. Fear God before you hurt families and innocent children for your own gain,” she added.
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Harbhajan Singh was banned for the remainder of the 2008 IPL season and publicly apologised for the incident multiple times. In a recent conversation with Ravichandran Ashwin on YouTube, he expressed deep regret. “One thing I’d want to change in my life is that incident with Sreesanth. I want to remove that incident from my career. It was wrong, and I shouldn’t have done it. I apologised 200 times," Harbhajan said. He added that meeting Sreesanth’s daughter after the incident had left a lasting emotional impact. “She said, ‘I don’t want to talk to you. You hit my father.’ My heart was shattered. I felt so bad and still apologise to his daughter," he said.
