‘Cheap publicity at the cost of families’: Sreesanth’s wife scorns at Lalit Modi, Michael Clarke over slapgate video

Nearly two decades after Harbhajan Singh slapped Sreesanth in the first IPL season, Lalit Modi shared the unseen footage, sparking outrage from Sreesanth’s wife, who accused him and Michael Clarke of forcing families to relive buried trauma.

The Indian Premier League (IPL) has grown into cricket’s most successful franchise league, but one moment from its inaugural 2008 season still lingers in memory: the “slapgate” incident.

During post-match handshakes between Mumbai Indians and Kings XI Punjab, Harbhajan Singh infamously slapped S Sreesanth — an episode that was not shown live on broadcast but quickly became one of the league’s earliest controversies.

Now, 18 years later, the unseen footage has been made public. Former IPL chairman Lalit Modi revealed on Michael Clarke’s Beyond23 podcast that a stadium security camera had captured the altercation after television cameras were switched off. “Bhajji just gave him a back-hander,” Modi told Clarke before releasing the clip.

The video clip has re-ignited debate, especially since both players had long buried the hatchet. Harbhajan has repeatedly said the incident remains his biggest regret. In a conversation with R Ashwin, he admitted he would erase that moment if he could. “I apologised 200 times. It was wrong,” he said, recalling how years later Sreesanth’s young daughter refused to speak to him because of it. “My heart was shattered. I still apologise to her.”

For Sreesanth’s family, though, the revival of the footage has been deeply painful. His wife, Bhuvneshwari, accused Modi and Clarke of chasing cheap publicity at the cost of families. “Shame on you. Both Harbhajan and Sreesanth are fathers now with school-going children. Yet you bring this back for cheap publicity. Disgusting, heartless, inhuman,” she wrote on Instagram.

Her posts, later reshared by Sreesanth himself, expressed how painful it was for their family to see the episode resurface. “Sreesanth has rebuilt his life with dignity after every hardship. As his wife and as the mother of his children, it's deeply hurtful to watch him thrown back into that moment from 2008. Families are being forced to relive trauma buried decades ago. This scars innocent children who must now face questions for no fault of theirs.”

She ended her note with a sharp warning to Modi and Clarke: “You should be sued for doing something so cheap and inhumane. Fear God before you hurt families and children for your own gain. No video can take away my husband’s dignity and strength.”

Though Harbhajan and Sreesanth have since worked together as commentators and even appeared in commercials, the release of the video has reopened an episode both men — and their families — would rather leave in the past.