Legendary Indian cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin criticised former IPL chairman Lalit Modi for revealing the never-seen footage of Harbhajan Singh slapping S Sreesanth in the inaugural edition of the tournament. The moment remains one of the most contentious incidents in the history of IPL. The players have long since moved on from it, and the former spinner has even apologised for his act on past occasions.
Modi released the video in a recent podcast with former Australia captain Michael Clarke, which rekindled the topic. The duo have since come under heavy fire, with Harbhajan and Sreesanth's wife slamming the act. Ashwin also expressed his disapproval.
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“It is the head of the anaconda that keeps on rising. In the modern day and age, footage and videos are everywhere. I just feel it is not a proud moment for both of them. I don’t wish to address too much about it. The incident is over. Everyone knows about it. Harbhajan came to our podcast and spoke about how he felt. Yes, you made a mistake, and you need to live with it for the rest of your life," Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.
"But you need to move on, too. Some folks may have done something like this at home and so the outside world would not know about it. I don’t wish to accuse anyone. The less we speak about it, the better. Anyone who makes a mistake, when they get a chance to move on, they take that chance," he added.
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Harbhajan himself responded to the video and accused Modi of having a "selfish motive" behind the leak. “The way the video has been leaked, it's wrong. It shouldn't have happened. They might have a selfish motive behind it. Something that happened 18 years ago, people have forgotten, and they are reminding people about it. I feel bad for whatever happened. We were playing, and everyone had things going on in their mind. Mistakes happened, and we do feel ashamed about it,” Harbhajan told Instant Bollywood.
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