Former Team India paceman S Sreesanth has made a stunning revelation about facing a racial slur in his days from being a junior cricketer to his time in the national team. The former right-arm speedster revealed that people had the misconception that anything below Bombay was presumed by people as Madrasi.
Sreesanth made his first international appearance in 2005 and played his final game in 2011, taking 169 wickets acorss 90 fixtures. However, the 41-year-old has disclosed that he faced racism from age-group cricket itself.
Speaking on The Ranveer Show, Sreesanth revealed:
"All my life I have been.... I can say it. See anything below Bombay was more like Madrasi. I have been hearing it from the time I was playing Under-13 to Under-14 to Under-16 to Under-19. Then we had the Kochi (Tuskers Kerala) team and it was like playing for the country again."
"When that incident happened, I was shocked" - Sreesanth on Slap gate:
The 41-year-old went on to recall the massive controversy erupting out of 'Slap gate', revealing that it was the heart that made him cry for that slap from Harbhajan.
"Yeah, yeah. Unbelievable. So I will say Bhajji pa. Even now I address him as 'Bhajji pa' and he is somebody who is always... Whenever I had any important spell or something I was not doing well I used to go and hug Bhajji pa. And somehow it is the vibration or maybe the positivity which paaji has got, I always used to get the performance out. So when that incident happened, I was shocked. I didn't cry because of pain but because of heart."
Sreesanth was at the time plying his trade for the Punjab Kings and Harbhajan was part of the Mumbai Indians.
