Harbhajan Singh Khalsa "Maclean's Magazine" in Canada published favorable articles about Harbhajan Singh in 1977, James Wilde of "Time" wrote a critical article that year, titled "Yogi Bhajan's Synthetic Sikhism". Wilde alleged that Gurucharan Singh Tohra, former President of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), had stated that Harbhajan Singh is not the leader of Sikhism in the Western World as he claimed, and that Tohra had denied the SGPC had ever given the title of Siri Singh Sahib to Singh. The "Time" article was followed by emphatic rebuttals from Tohra. There was also a demonstration held outside "Time"'s London office and a
Harbhajan Singh home series against Sri Lanka, Asia Cup in Bangladesh. He played only one match in the Asia Cup against UAE. He was also part of the T20 World Cup that took place in India but did not play any of the matches. Harbhajan was again excluded from the Indian squad for the 2017 Champions Trophy in England. After hearing of his exclusion, Harbhajan claimed he did not receive the same "privileges" other veteran cricketers, namely MS Dhoni, have been afforded by the national selectors. After the media pounced on this comment, Harbhajan claimed the media frenzy took his statement out