Received denial on first proposal… still did not accept defeat, this champion cricketer’s love story is filmy

New Delhi. The flight of spirits, the aggressive attitude on the field and then being clean bowled by a Bollywood beauty at the first sight, the life of Indian cricket’s legendary off-spinner Harbhajan Singh has been like a blockbuster romantic-drama film. When Bhajji, who had blown away the world’s biggest batsmen with his magical spin on the field, himself got trapped in the ‘trap of love’, the most beautiful innings of his life began. However, parallel to this beautiful love story, there were many big storms of controversies in his career, but he always stood firm on this pitch of love.

The love story of Harbhajan Singh is completely filmy and a great example of ‘Love at First Sight’. It is about those days when Bhajji was in London. One day he saw the superhit song ‘Woh Ajnabee’ from the film ‘The Train’ on TV. Bhajji was so impressed by the beauty of actress Geeta Basra seen in the song that he immediately decided that he would live with this girl. From London itself, he called his close friend and fellow cricketer Yuvraj Singh and inquired about Geeta. Eventually, using his contacts in the corridors of Bollywood, Bhajji managed to get Geeta’s phone number. As soon as he got the number, he messaged Geeta and invited her to have coffee. However, Geeta, born in Portsmouth, Britain, initially did not express any feelings to the star cricketer and there was no response to her messages.

Denial to acceptance and 7 years of wait
The twist in this one-sided love story came when Team India became the T20 World Cup champion. After this historic victory, Geeta herself called Harbhajan and congratulated him. From here the conversation between the two started. After this Bhajji invited Geeta to watch the IPL match, but Geeta did not come, due to which Bhajji was heartbroken. Gradually the friendship deepened and when Harbhajan proposed Geeta for the first time, Geeta flatly refused citing her Bollywood career. But Bhajji was also firm on his insistence. They did not back down and finally after dating for about 7 years, both of them got married in October 2015. Today this couple has two lovely children, daughter Hinaya Heer and son Jovan Veer Singh.

When ‘cricket controversies’ came in the middle of this journey of love
During the time when this closeness between Harbhajan and Geeta was growing, at the same time, Harbhajan Singh’s name on the field was being associated with the biggest controversies in the history of Indian cricket. Geeta Basra had also told in an interview that Bhajji is as soft at heart as he looks tough and strong from outside. But his ‘strong style’ on the field many times became the cause of big storms.

Monkeygate controversy
During the 2008 Australia series, there was a heated argument between Harbhajan Singh and Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds in the Sydney Test. The Australian team accused Bhajji of making racial remarks (calling him ‘monkey’). This controversy reached such a height that the cricket relations between India and Australia were at stake and Bhajji was also temporarily banned. During this period, during the first season of IPL, Harbhajan Singh crossed all limits of discipline. After one match he bowler S. Sreesanth was slapped on the field, after which Sreesanth was seen crying on live camera. After this incident, Bhajji was banned for the entire season and he was heavily criticized.

Seriousness, retirement and new journey
With the passage of time and the arrival of Geeta Basra in his life, Harbhajan’s nature became serious. Accepting his mistakes, Bhajji had publicly expressed regret over the Sreesanth incident. He had said, ‘Whatever happened was wrong. I had made a mistake, due to which both my partner and I had to face embarrassment. Geeta also always kept showing mirror to Bhajji. According to Bhajji, ‘Geeta always gives me honest opinion as to where I am wrong.’ Harbhajan, who will retire from international cricket in December 2022, has 417 wickets in Tests and 269 wickets in ODIs.