Indian cricket has a very long history and the team has been playing cricket for more than 90+ years. With so many happy moments, we have seen some controversies as well over the years in Indian cricket history. Today, we will see some of them here. So let’s start.
Top 10 controversies in Indian Cricket history
(1) Virat Kohli showing middle finger
The former Indian cricket captain and current player, Virat Kohli has always been an animated character over the years. Especially in his initial days, he expressed himself fully without even thinking once. The same thing happened during the Indian cricket team’s tour of Australia in 2012, where India lost the series 4-0.
In the Sydney Test, Virat Kohli was fielding at the boundary line and a local spectator started booing him. Virat didn’t take it well and responded quickly by showing a middle finger to the audience.
For this behavior, the match referee charged him for a level two offense and fined him half-match fees as well.
(2) When Mike Denness banned a few Indian players during the South Africa tour
During India’s tour of South Africa in 2001, Sachin Tendulkar got banned for ball tempering. The match referee Mike Denness also banned a few other players like V Sehwag, Deep Das Gupta, etc for excessive appeals. He also banned captain S Ganguly for not controlling his team well.
(3) Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul’s comments in Koffee with Karan
Popular Bollywood Actor, Producer, and Director Karan Johar runs a show called Koffee with Karan. In this show, he asked some chicky questions to the celebrities, public figures, etc. The format of the show is like that.
Two of the famous Indian cricket team members, Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul went to that show and they didn’t expect that repercussions. Hardik Pandya made some comments regarding hooking up with multiple girls. He also made some sexist comments and the fans didn’t find it good. They lashed Pandya and Rahul and appealed for a ban from the BCCI as well.
The whole social media went after these two and Vijay Shankar was replaced in place of Hardik Pandya for a while. Although both the cricketers went on to play again for the Indian cricket team.
(4) Greg Chappell – Sourav Ganguly chapter
One of the biggest cricket controversies in India is the fight between Greg Chappell and S Ganguly. During the Zimbabwe tour, coach Chappell suggested dropping Ganguly from the Indian cricket team.
Even Ganguly, after some time, has said it was a mistake to make Chappell as coach of the Indian cricket team.
Later, the selectors dropped Ganguly from the team and sacked from the ODIs as well. But the fans didn’t take it well and protested against Chappell as well.
(5) Bad umpiring decisions during the 2007-08 Sydney Test
During the Indian cricket team’s tour of Australia in 2007-08, one of the most controversial test matches was played. In the Sydney Test, 9 wrong decisions have been made against the Indian team. That test was controversial for some other reason as well. We will discuss that later in this article as well.
(6) Spot-fixing and betting in the IPL
Fixing in cricket has very old roots. Especially in league/ franchise cricket. During the IPL 2013, as many as 3 players including a big name, S Sreesanth were caught for spot-fixing. There were some other illegal activities have been recorded as well. This is one of the biggest cricket controversies in Indian cricket history.
(7) Harbhajan slapping Sreesanth
It was the incident during the IPL 2008 after a game between Mumbai Indians and Kings XI Punjab. Harbhajan Singh slapped Sreesanth after the latter sarcastically said ‘Hard luck’ to the former. Harbhajan also faced a ban from the final match of the tournament.
(8) Virat Kohli vs Saurav Ganguly
Virat Kohli has stepped down from the T20Is. And then the selectors decided to have only one captain for white ball cricket. So Virat has been sacked from the ODI captaincy. And then, he left the test team’s captaincy later as well. Although he wanted to lead the side in the ODIs and tests.
Some differences of opinion happened between Gangluy, then BCCI president, and Virat. This is one of the recent controversies in the Indian cricket history.
(9) Monkeygate saga
We talked about the Sydney test of 2007-08 earlier. In the same match, Harbhajan Singh called ‘Monkey’ to Andrew Symonds. He faced a ban for this comment as well. The authorities lifted that ban later.
(10) MS Dhoni’s decision on senior players during the 2011 Commonwealth Bank ODI series
During the 2011-12 Commonwealth Bank ODI series, captain MS Dhoni made a point regarding the slowness of some of the senior players (Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, and V Sehwag) on the field. The fans criticized Dhoni for this and didn’t take it well. That was a very controversial moment in the Indian cricket history.
So these are a few controversies in Indian cricket history. Thank you for reading the article. We hope you like it. Keep following us for the latest updates.
