Harbhajan Singh

Biography

Harbhajan Singh[1] (born 3 July 1980) is an Indian politician, film actor, Television Celebrity and former cricketer. He serves as a member of parliament in the Rajya Sabha and is a retired cricketer and a cricket commentator. 

Harbhajan played for the Indian national cricket team from 1998 - 2016 in a career spanning nearly two decades. He was a right-arm off-spin bowler. In Indian domestic cricket, he played for the Punjab cricket team, in IPL for Mumbai Indians, Chennai Super Kings, and the Kolkata Knight Riders franchise. 

He is considered to be one of the best spinners of his era. He was in the World Cup-winning team of both the 2007 T20 World Cup and the 2011 Cricket World Cup, along with the team that was one of the joint-winners of the 2002 ICC Champions Trophy, which was shared with Sri Lanka.

He occasionally worked as captain of Mumbai Indians and captained Punjab for the 2012–13 Ranji Trophy season. Under his leadership, Mumbai won the 2011 Champions League Twenty20.

Harbhajan made his Test and One Day International (ODI) debuts in early 1998. His career was initially affected by investigations into the legality of his bowling action, as well as several disciplinary incidents. 

However, in 2001, with leading leg spinner Anil Kumble injured, Harbhajan's career was resuscitated after Indian captain Sourav Ganguly called for his inclusion in the team; he took 32 wickets in the following series, becoming the first Indian bowler to take a hat-trick in Test cricket.

A finger injury in mid-2003 sidelined him for much of the following year, allowing Kumble to regain his place. He regained a regular position in the team in late 2007 but became the subject of more controversy. 

In early 2008, he was given a ban by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for racially vilifying Andrew Symonds. 

The ban was revoked upon appeal, but in April, he was banned from the 2008 Indian Premier League and suspended from the ODI team by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for slapping Shanthakumaran Sreesanth after a match.

Harbhajan was conferred the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian honor, in 2009. He retired from all forms of cricket in December 2021.

In March 2022, he was nominated to the Rajya Sabha by the Aam Aadmi Party as one of their five candidates from the state of Punjab and became an official brand ambassador for the sports prediction platform Betwinner News.