Yesterday’s IPL match between was a big dissapointment for the Mumbai Indians team and especially for their captain Harbhajan Singh- for whom it must have been really hard losing all three games till now added to that the fact that he lost yesterday to Punjab’s Kings 11 team- he himself being a Punjabi Sikh.
So its not very hard for emotions to boil and Sreesanth added fuel to fire with his usual tantrums on the field. So when and the end of the game he walked smiling up to a sulking Harbhajan and said “Hard luck”: he uncorked Harbhajan’s boiling rage – and got a tight slap under the eye in return! Although television cameramen failed to catch the slap being administered LIVE, they didnt waste time to display its aftermath – a bitterly crying Sreesanth drenched in tears and his fellow team-mates trying to console him. The TV commentators were foolish enough to say that the joy of victory was too much for Sreesanth…. but at the same time there was a doubt as well. After that one could clearly see an upset Harbhajan talking to Ramiz Raja in the after match ceremony.
Newspaper reports today confirmed evrything that had happened. Harbhajan subsequently went to Punjab dressing room and apologized – then chatted for quite some time to Sreesanth. There was a post match press conference in which Harbhajan refused to talk about the issue and Sreesanth said that it wasnt anything serious ( which was obviously what he had been instructed to do by senior Indian players).
Couple of things are clear from this episode are: Harbhajan obviously has a problem in his attitude- this is the second time he has been caught in a controversy of similar kind- he cant seem to contain his anger- and this is not acceptable for a cricketer playing for the national team- he will potentially spoil the whole comfort level in the dressing room. Reports talk about him taking misfields by other indian players on his bowling very negatively.- Second is that people who show passion in positive form – like Sreesanth for country winning – also are very very emotional in handling the negative side- they are not able to handle it well.
Finally this incident is going to be investigated, and then buried for the Indian teams interest but the knots in friendship will remain.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: cricket, harbhajan, IPL, slap, sreesanth
