Cricket is known as a gentleman’s game but if we go down the history of cricket we can find some incidents that shook the cricket fraternity across the globe and of course marred the gentlemanly spirit of cricket. Here let’s take a look at the top 11 cricket controversies in random order, that trembled the arena of the game.
The Ashes series of 1932-33 witnessed the most controversial incident in the history of cricket. During that series ( popularly known as the Body-Line series) the English bowlers devised a tactic to prevent the Australian batsmen from scoring freely. They stick to short pitched deliveries in the line of leg stump that were aimed at the batsman’s body. Although no serious injury resulted from that incident, it led to a bitter relationship between the two teams and it also affected the diplomatic relations between England and Australia. The Body-Line series is rated as the most controversial among the top 11cricket controversies.
The Sydney Riot of 1879 was a civil disorder that occurred during a cricket match between a touring English Team captained by Lord Harris and New South Wales led by Dave Gregory. The riot was initiated by a controversial decision by the umpire when a New South Wales batsman was declared out. The decision caused a furor among the spectators and an angry mob intruded into the ground and assaulted the fielding English players as well as the umpire. It is believed that the riot was sparked by some gamblers, who bet heavily on the home side because the English team was in a strong position to win the match. This incident is rated as one of the most shocking among the top 11 cricket controversies
On 20th August 2006, on the 4th Day of the 4th Test between England and Pakistan, the world witnessed one of the top 10 controversies of cricket when umpire Darrell Hair accused the Pakistani team of ball tampering and awarded England 5 runs as penalty. As a mark of protest, the Pakistani team refused to take the field after tea the tea break. The Umpires declared the match forfeited and awarded the match to England. This is the only forfeited Test in the history of cricket. This incident will always linger in the memory of cricket lovers as one of the top 11 biggest cricket controversies.
March 3 2009 will be remembered as a Black Letter day in cricket history as the world witnessed one of the most heinous attack on any sports person as the touring Sri Lankan Cricket Team came under a deadly terrorist attack near Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, Pakistan. A group of 12 gunmen attacked the bus that the Sri Lankan players were traveling from their hotel to the stadium. 6 Sri Lankan players were injured in the attack. This incident will be surely regarded as the most infamous incident in cricket history and is surely the most terrifying among the most famous cricket controversies.
India’s tour to Australia in 2008 is probably the most controversial Test Series the world has ever seen. The series was marred by controversies, one after the other as the Australian players displayed utter lack of sportsman spirit during that tour.. During the 2nd Test match of that controversial series at Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG), an ugly altercation between Harbhajan Singh and Andrew Symonds raised the eyebrows of the entire cricket fraternity. Andrew Symonds alleged that Harbhajan made a racist remark against him by calling him a monkey. Harbhajan was banned for 3 Tests as a consequence. This incident had a bitter effect on India-Australia relationship and is rated as one of the top 11 cricket controversies.
The spot fixing scandal of 2010 involving a few Pakistani cricketers raised quite a few eyebrows when Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir were convicted of spot fixing in a Test match against England at Lords. An undercover reporter from an English newspaper exposed the scandal by a videotape which filmed Amir, Asif and Butt accepting money from a bookie named Mazhar Majeed for bowling deliberate no balls at specific points in an over. This is one of the darkest incidents in the history of cricket and is rated as one of the top cricket controversies
IPL 2008 turned out to be one of the most embarrassing season for Indian speedster Santhakumaran Sreesanth as he was slapped by his Team India team-mate Harbhajan Singh after his team Kings XI Punjab came out victorious against Harbhajan’s team, Mumbai Indians. It was reported that Bhajji slapped Sreesanth when he said “Hard Luck” to Harbhajan on their defeat. Sreesanth was seen crying in the field and his tears could be clearly visible it in the TV screen. Harbhajan was banned for 11 IPL matches for this ugly incident.
Three Rajasthan Royals players S. Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila, Ankeet Chavan took money from bookies and fixed matches. Sreesanth and Chandila were supposed to give 14 runs in an over and Chavan was supposed to give 13 runs. Before tat particular over, the players signaled the bookies. The police were tracking them for the past 1 month and caught them red-handed. One of the bookies was a former Royals player Amit Singh. After they accepted their crime to the police, they named Vinoo Dara Singh is also a part of the network. After questioning him, Dara Singh jr. Mentioned Gurunath Meiyappan, Team Principal of CSK was involved in betting and he had lost 1 crore on bets this year. After an inquiry session with CBI, Gurunath was arrested. This means the future of Chennai Super Kings in real Danger. Gurunath is also the Son-in-law of BCCI president N.Srinivasan. This incident is one of the darkest among the top 11 cricket controversies.