Harbhajan Slaps Sreesanth
Kings XI Punjab vs. Mumbai Indians (April 25, 2008)
There are a lot of incidents in life which one feels should not have happened. Being slapped by a senior in your cricket team is one of the worst. Having played (and still playing) some sort of cricket myself, I can at least try to understand the agony that Shantakumaran Sreesanth must have felt when he was slapped by Harbhajan Singh. According to most sources, after the match (which the Kings finally won), Sree (Kings) went over to Harbhajan (Indians) and said, and I quote: “Hard Luck, mate.” The next moment, Sreesanth was in tears. LITERALLY, and that too in front of a few billion international viewers. He looked totally inconsolable.
Let’s tone down the melodrama and focus a bit on the psychology here. Dinnie, I know it’s your territory but I can’t help but dwell on it now. Harbhajan has always had his run-ins with the law. Right from his dislike for the National Cricket Academy food in his teens, to his possession of stinking shoes in New Zealand, to his ‘polite’ altercations with Hayden and Symonds, he has always been the talking point when it comes to the rule stretchers of Indian Cricket. What I feel about human psychology is that it follows the cause-effect principle. Everything has a reason. Digging into Harbhajan, you would find that he alone supports nine people in his family. His dad passed away when his place in the Indian Team was not even certain. He has been through a lot, and a bit of impatience usually comes with it.
Coming back to Sreesanth, he too has been the eye-candy for match referees throughout his young career. His actions mostly smell of aggression, stinking on the side of immaturity most of the times. The romantics in India certainly appreciate that, but then, what is immature is IMMATURE. When a known aggressor is the captain of a team which has just lost the third match in a row, only an immature personality can go up to him and say things Sree said. Harbhajan retort was acceptable, maybe not the manner in which he dished it out. A smart word should have sufficed. Sometimes it feels that we as cricket observers should try to find out who was right and who was wrong in every on and off field incident. We do this, knowing pretty well than nothing is RIGHT or WRONG, it just happens. You can analyze it as much as you may; the truth is that there is no truth. Everything is just an interpretation. Best of Luck, Harbhajan and HARD LUCK, Sreesanth
Video Credit : Youtube
Well written. Though I can feel for both in some way. If one picks up the card maybe I can take sides, but now I just kind of split between both of them. Hope it gets over with.
Things might be happen at such situation. But paji should control himself, afterall srisanth is best and best,, he fillup all hollow as much as he can.
from my view paji must apologise in media.
PAJI u are too.. short temper.
Srisanth dont mind for that..
say balla balleh tu paji…
thanks hari and vinod…
i think this aint getting over soon…
BCCI has banned bhajji till the inquiry..
the minimum punishment is 10 matches and the maximum is life..
neah, i don’t think it is getting over so soon and i for one doesn’t want it to get over so soon… no not (only) because i love this drama or anything but (also) because i think that this bhajju guy is getting out of the BCCI’s big hands and in any kind of organization or institution esp in sports one should be sporting enough an bhajju has to do so form of soul searching… a ban 10 matches and some introspection will do him a world of good
This is really stupid behaviour of Harbajan.is he thinking is he a hero?…poor sreesanth became a victim…crying like a baby in the ground..if this is done by any other team he might fighted but this is done other indian his team mate..what sreesanth can do other than crying…
poor cricket..worst day …
poddar: i know the romantic in you says that. Anyways, i don’t think BCCI will let him off… Trust me, the next time the chargers and superkings play each other, haydos and roy would be sharing more than a couple of drinks…some poetic justice…
charles: i know it is bad, but it ain’t that bad…sree is not a victim…no sir…you have to show some maturity and not cry in public…
Ankit,
Victimising sreesanth for crying in public is just ridiculous. Ok, maybe he should have gone into the dressing room but he was probably overcome with emotion after Harbhajan verbally abused him and slapped him. It is true that Sreesanth is guilty of showing excess aggression on the field and maybe even acting immature. But that doesn’t give someone the right to physically harm a fellow player. Harbhajan had it coming after his despicable behaviour right through the years. I feel stupid for supporting this imbecile during the Sydney controversy. he deserves to be banned for the rest of the IPL season and a few international matches at the least.
Tear up his IPL contract and place a life ban on him representing India. Hayden absolutely hit the nail on the head when he labelled him an obnoxious little weed. I think you can add compulsive liar and coward to his character resume.
Sj : Precisely. Its this attention seeker in him which pisses me off. Bhajji WILL be banned, according to a lot of news feeds which I follow…some say it may be LIFE
Craig: minimum 10 matches means IPL out of the window (Mumbai Indians can’t make the final). As for the resume, most of us know most of the things…
Indian crick’s are Emotional people(Cracks), one should know how to behave himself no matter who he is….especially to to these unmannered fellows. such should be penalized severly and confiscated….. Cricket is meant for diginity, not to demean IT…! watch
Did you hear the joke? Sreesanth cried because Zinta didn’t hug him after the match, while she hugged most of the other players.
Seriously, there’s no psychology here. It’s the rare case of a varmint running into a varmint. (Blame Margaret Mitchell for infesting my vocabulary with that word.)
Samuel: quite true
Dinnie : How varmint was that :o :D
Ankit? is your last name Singh??? if not why the prejudice for Harbhajan? whatever he may be a great bowler, a great player … but he is not a good sportsman and definitely not a good Human being to be with.
As my grandpa used to say, a man’s character shows in the way he treats his juniors or the people who work for him.
By that yardstick Harbhajan is definitely from the simian age.
Cheer up mate. no hard feelings.
Krishna:
Nope, I am a Brahmin, not a Singh by any chance. I just tried to analyze what would make a man feel that he is from a simian age. I did not justify anything, as his actions cannot be justified. You know, Bloggers have this itch to explore aspects where cricinfo wouldn’t dare enter.
Hope you got my point. ;)
See..i agree wat bhajji did was totally wrong but then sreesanth is no saint either. The fact that IPL suspended the umpire who spoke about Sreesanth’s provocative attempts during the match is proof enough that Sreesanth is not innocent at all. I think that was a cover up operation.
Being team mates for a fair amount of time now..sree must be knowing that Bhajji is an imensely passionate (read aggressive) cricketer n wasnt exactly in the best of mood after losing the third consecutive match. Passing a taunting comment at that stage n that too forgetting all respect for a senior player might have hurt Bhajji.
And being quite an aggressive player myself (if someday ankit decides to write about my several onfield spats u ‘ll know) i can say that every player doesnt react to igonomy in the same way…some like Bhajji ( with whom i totally identify) get impulsive . I m sure Bhajji would have returned a smiling gesture to any other player in the same situation but when ur own teammate ( the INDIAN team ) fails to respect you ….anger is bound to take the frontseat…
I agree tht Sreesanth might have provoked Bhajji but i guess whatever said and done all dis should not lead to ne physical assault.
Bhajji is passionate agreed but i guess his sentiments take over him a lot of times and the amount of times he has faced a ban or has been reprimanded for his actions on the field is not a good sign.He should have remained calm or maybe given something back but slapping or boxing as sreesanth later claimed was no way to react and i guess 11 match IPL ban is too little a punishment for him.
A bit of sledging and all is good for the game it makes it more exciting and being in international cricket for 10 years he should be used to all this and should now stop being in the news for all the wrong reasons.He is a greaqt player but needs to control his sentiments just like u need to MR Nagpal wich almost did put r tournament in a jeopardy.
jatin and anurag : well said both of you. Slightly contrasting points of view, but both completely acceptable.
Both of you play with me so I know what you are talking about :D
well i think, sreesanth acted pretty smart in showing his tears publically. Ideally, after being slapped by a fellow team member, he couldn’t start a street fight. The best revenge or outcome he could have taken is to show himself crying on ground in front of the tv cemaras. You all have seen the result, a ban on harbhajjan. What if sreesanth had left quitely to the dressing room and would have cried there. Believe me, he is smart!! and that’s how everyone should be
that presents a pretty different picture of course. But what has happened is that Sree’s never say die and always positive outlook has been busted. Sir, you tell me something. What would Sree get by getting Harbhajan Singh punished? It all loads of trash thats been floating around.
So, you mean to say dat harbhajan is not smart. He slapped him when cameras were not around.
And I say sreesanth is smarter than him. He cried when cameras were around him . Hahaah.. Isn’ it. Ideally if it would have been any other place than cricket field, then who knows both would be crying.