S Sreesanth has once again brought the long-running Harbhajan Singh feud back into the spotlight after issuing a public challenge to his former India teammate nearly 18 years after the IPL’s infamous “Slapgate” incident.
The latest challenge came after Sreesanth reacted to a recent advertisement linked to the old controversy and asked Harbhajan to settle the matter in a ring. The former fast bowler said the fresh ad reopened old wounds and made it clear that he no longer considers the relationship repairable in any meaningful public sense.
Sreesanth Turned the Old Issue into a Fresh Challenge
Sreesanth’s remarks were not limited to revisiting the 2008 episode. He directly challenged Harbhajan to face him in a ring and repeated that call with stronger language, presenting the idea as an open challenge rather than a joke or a passing comment:
“This same scene, do you have the guts? Do you have the guts to come into the ring with me? Can you sign and come? Can you? I am asking him. Do you have the guts to come into the ring with me? Wearing these same gloves… This is not acting, I am smiling. You are not even smiling, I don’t know what you are doing. Let’s see. This is an open challenge,” Sreesanth said while facing the camera during a recent interview.
He was referring to a promotional image of the pair wearing boxing gloves, and used that visual to push the challenge further. His comments made it clear that he wanted a direct confrontation rather than another round of public references to the past.
Ad Fuelled Sreesanth’s Open Challenge Amid Profit Claims for Singh
Sreesanth said the feud sharpened again after Harbhajan featured in an advertisement inspired by the Slapgate incident. He said the ad made him feel the matter had been dragged back into the public arena after years of relative calm.
Sreesanth also claimed Harbhajan profited from that publicity and said the former spinner made money from the renewed attention. He said he had blocked Harbhajan on Instagram and that he no longer had any relationship with him:
“If someone wrongs you, you should forgive them but never forget. If you forget, they will do the same thing again. He is the biggest example for that,” Sreesanth said. “I have no relationship with that person. I used to call him a brother. But in that last one or two months he did that ad and now I have blocked him on Instagram.”
The Original Slapgate Episode Still Defines the Dispute
The current argument still traces back to the 2008 IPL when Harbhajan slapped Sreesanth after a match in Mohali. The incident became one of the league’s earliest and most infamous scandals.
Harbhajan was later suspended for the remainder of the season, and the two former teammates eventually appeared to reconcile publicly in the years that followed. The latest exchange shows that the old wound has clearly never disappeared from public memory.
Singh Fires Back with Cryptic “Empty Barrel” Post
Harbhajan did not directly name Sreesanth in his response, but he posted a video on Instagram that many social-media users interpreted as a reply to the challenge. The post carried the line, “empty vessels make the most noise,” and was widely linked as a response to Sreesanth’s comments.
That reaction kept the story moving instead of cooling it down. Harbhajan’s response suggested that the feud had again become a public back-and-forth. Some analysts said Singh would have adopted silence or issued a clear denial if he didn’t want to escalate the situation
The Feud Now Looks Bigger Than the Original Incident
What began in 2008 as a single on-field altercation has now evolved into a recurring public narrative involving interviews, social media posts and competing versions of closure. The latest exchange suggests that the old reconciliation was fragile, at least from Sreesanth’s point of view.
His recent challenge appeared charged, as he called on Singh to honour a boxing bout with him to settle the matter:
“I challenge you, Bhajji. If you have this much of a problem with the slap incident and me, and you earn this much… let me earn too. Come into the ring. I am calling you from my heart. If we have some self-respect, let’s not do ads and all that. In a genuine way, for all the Malayalis and all the Sardars, please come. I am waiting,” the retired cricketer turned aspiring boxer added.
For now, the matter appears to be driven more by public statements than by any formal resolution. Unless one of the two former India cricketers chooses to calm the situation, the story is likely to keep resurfacing whenever the original episode is referenced again.
