Barely a couple of hours after slapping his India teammate S Sreesanth, a repentant Harbhajan Singh had a quiet dinner with the Kerala pacer to get over the unsavoury incident.
Sreesanth, who was slapped by Harbhajan after an Indian Premier League match in May, said neither he nor Harbhajan expected that it would snowball into the crisis that it eventually did.
"We actually had dinner the same day. So I don't know how come the media and people took it very seriously," Sreesanth revealed in an interview to television channel NDTV.
The episode, which marked a new low in players' on-field behaviour, finally settled after Harbhajan was docked his IPL earnings from that match onwards and banned from the remainder of the tournament.
The BCCI also reprimanded Harbhajan by handing him a five-ODI ban.
Looking back at the episode, Sreesanth said it was all but forgotten now and would not affect the Indian dressing room as is being speculated.
"Everything is fine actually. We are still brothers it is not going to affect (us) for sure," he said.
In fact, Sreesanth said he feels for Harbhajan, who lost Rs 2.8 crore of his IPL earnings.
"Imagine...losing 2.8 crore... I mean 2.8 crore is a costly slap," he said.
The flamboyant pacer, known as much for his temper as for his bowling, said there was point in his career when he thought of becoming a spin bowler.
"I was a leg-spinner to start with... I don't know how it (fast bowling) happened. Maybe thanks to MRF pace foundation Dennis (Lillee) sir and (T A) Shekar sir. They played a big role," he recalled.
