Harbhajan Singh appears to have responded to S Sreesanth’s public boxing challenge with a cryptic social media post on Friday. Sreesanth and Harbhajan, former teammates with the Indian cricket team and fellow party members with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), have a strained history since the latter slapped the fast-bowler after a match in the IPL 2008 season.
Sreesanth has spoken about how the incident affected him and his family over the years. Harbhajan is also on record saying that he was heartbroken when he was confronted by Sreesanth’s daughter. At one time, both players seemed to have moved on, but then former IPL chairman Lalit Modi released a never-before-seen video of the slap, and Harbhajan went on to make an advertisement with a joke
about the incident.
The latest exchange began after Sreesanth made a series of remarks during an interview with Lallantop, which was released earlier in the day. Shown an old photograph of the two cricketers wearing boxing gloves, Sreesanth issued an open challenge to Harbhajan.
“Do you have the guts to come into the ring with me? Wearing these same gloves… Let’s see. This is an open challenge,” Sreesanth said. “I challenge you, Bhajji. If you have this much of a problem with the slap incident and me… come into the ring. I am calling you from my heart,” Sreesanth added.
Hours later, Harbhajan shared a video on Instagram carrying a pointed message. While he did not mention Sreesanth by name, the timing of the post drew immediate attention on social media.
In the video, Harbhajan said: “Kisine bohot khub kaha hai ki karne do jo log bakwaas karte hain, hamesha khali bartaan hi to awaaz karte hain.”
The phrase translates to ’empty vessels make the most noise’ and says that those of hollow characters speak the most. It was widely interpreted by fans as a response to Sreesanth’s comments.










