NEW DELHI: Former India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin slammed ex-IPL chairman Lalit Modi and former Australia captain Michael Clarke for releasing an unseen video of the infamous 2008 'slapgate' controversy, where Harbhajan Singh was caught slapping Sreesanth during the inaugural IPL season in 2008. Modi triggered the controversy by releasing the video while speaking to Clarke on his podcast Beyond 23.
"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.
Ashwin emphasised that everyone deserves a chance to move on after making mistakes and added that such matters should not be excessively discussed in public.
"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.
Harbhajan, who accepted his mistake on numerous occasions in the past, hinted at the 'selfish motive' behind the video 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," Harbhajan told Instant Bollywood.
"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," he added.
