League of Extraordinary Gentlemen !
“Harbhajan slaps Sreesanth”, these were the lines I happened to watch on a news channel on Saturday morning. I was taken aback. “Did Harbhajan really slap Sreesanth?”. I wondered in disbelief. I browsed through different news channels and had to believe it. According to media reports, after Friday’s defeat of Mumbai Indians in the hands of Kings XI, Sreesanth (who plays for Kings XI, Punjab ) walked to Harbhajan (Captain, Mumbai Indians) for a shake hand and said “Hard Luck”. The slap was the reply from Harbhajan.
Just when the IPL fever was catching up, this incident has become a dark spot to its legacy. How can Harbhajan slap his fellow player? The captain of the costliest franchise would definitely be under pressure after losing 3 matches in a row. But that doesn’t mean showing aggression on his fellow teammates. The action of Harbhajan is in no way commendable.
IPL has partially led to rivalry between players of different teams. Hope it doesn’t get big. IPL ads shown on TV are also on similar lines. In one ad a dentist doesn’t seem to hesitate to pluck more teeth from his patient just because he supports a different franchise. In another ad, a teenager who is about to sacrifice his seat in bus to an elderly person, refrains from doing so after coming to know that he supports a different franchise.
Harbhajan’s actions on Friday were least expected from a senior player like him. Few months back when Hayden commented on Harbhajan calling him ‘obnoxious little weed’, the entire nation stood by Harbhajan. But Bhajji, this time you let us down. Please remember that cricket is a gentlemen’s game. Be disciplined on the field and don’t go on and become another Shoaib.
April 27, 2008 at 7:56 am
I was on Yahoo and found your blog. Read a few of your other posts. Good work. I am looking forward to reading more from you in the future.
Tom Stanley
April 27, 2008 at 8:32 am
[...] Original post by Radhesh’s Weblog [...]
April 27, 2008 at 9:23 am
Harbhajan IS an obnoxious little weed.
April 28, 2008 at 3:42 am
A nice and hard hitting article , Excellent view. I fully support it.
Radhesh has directly come to the point and has clearly brought out the inherent side effects of the SO CALLED IPL ’s League of extraordinary gentlemen
April 28, 2008 at 4:43 am
We are just seeing the maturity level of indian players. And more over i never believed that harbajan makes a good captain, with so many controvarsies behind him.This IPL has given him an oppurtinuty to learn and intract and share the same dressing room with the cricket greats. But all he has done is behaving like a obxinious little weed. So i see no point blaming the IPL or system for his actions.
April 28, 2008 at 9:01 am
Man thats a shame to Indian cricket.
I doubt is it some kind of public gimik by BCCI to show they are very strict in rules ???
or
Somekind of publicity stunt for TRP rating (Its always above 7,may be they target 10) ???
Ok adding on to the topic………..what the hell was sreesanth thinking when he commented on Times Now “Harbhajan and me are like brothers” or same fellow on asianet says “It was slugfest”. I really want to see the video which captured this……
April 28, 2008 at 9:23 am
@bubbleonfire :
No comments. BCCI is there to decide that
@Nikhil,
Thnks dude
@Abhishek,
Yes. Harbhajan has demonstrated a poor captaincy. He should learn from his mistakes.
April 28, 2008 at 9:25 am
@Praveen,
It dosnt look like a publicity stunt to me.
Sreesant initially tried to downplay the event. But later when it took a serious turn, he changed his comments
April 28, 2008 at 10:53 am
@ Radhesh- Great article. IPL is all business. Its not in the right spirit of game. I am totally against it. Do you know Sharukh Khan and a UK company are coming up with a campaign to legalize betting in India? Do they even know what consequences its gonna have on public. I have started hating Shahrukh-he has lost his demeanour. He has gone larger than life and he should remember lthings explode really fast!
anguished,
fruity
April 28, 2008 at 11:45 am
@Fruity,
IPL is indeed a business. And i havnt heard about Sharukh’s campaign to legalize betting. It will be the last thing i expect from him. 
Thank u
April 29, 2008 at 8:51 am
You forget to mention the ad in which a woman falsely accuses a man of eve teasing because he favours a different team.I didn’t find it funny.
April 29, 2008 at 9:04 am
@pr3rna,
Yup. Thanks for reminding
April 29, 2008 at 9:32 am
This entire icident is a shame to indian Cricket. Hope the punishment is severe enough to ward off such incidents in future
April 29, 2008 at 9:37 am
@Madhan,
Yes. Its a shame. Harbhajan is banned for 11 IPL matches. I feel thats fair
April 29, 2008 at 3:57 pm
All I see here is that Sree has been a culprit since long (Not just against Aussies) while Bhaji has been a scapegoat by the Indian media and BCCI. Racism comments by him were never proved while Sree has been very open about his childish attitude. I believe if Bhaji is banned so should that loser Sree. Afterall, Bhaji is not crazy to slap someone without being intimidated. I believer BCCI and the media are very cruel against Bhaji and I see that its racist, just because he is a sardar. If you guys havent noticed it yet, you should because it is obvious Bhaji has not done any such thing for which he has got such a bad name (in the past). Its about time this Sikh/Hindu racism stops before its too late. That kerala bastard should be banned, lets be equal .. he aint no angel.
April 30, 2008 at 7:15 am
@Ankut,
Please dont bring racism here. This is in no way related to it.
Physically assaulting a player just because he provoked is not good. Bhajji should have reacted in a better way. I would also happy to see Sreeshant more disciplined on field.
April 30, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Dont know what really happened behined the scenes.. and Radhesh is right.. Please do not bring any kind of racism here…