IPL: Season six, and six controversies

Tags: Indian Premier League - 2013

Published on: May 27, 2013

The sixth edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is out of the way, and this is the season all involved with the league, including the viewers, would like to forget in a hurry since it has made so much news for the wrong reasons.

The sixth edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is out of the way, and this is the season all involved with the league, including the viewers, would like to forget in a hurry since it has made so much news for the wrong reasons. Cricwaves picks out six controversies that the tournament could have done without.

IPL in a ‘spot’: First and foremost is obviously the spot-fixing malaise that raised his ugly heads during the course of season six. The morning of May 16 brought shock and awe to cricketlovers, and specifically those who follow the domestic T20 league with a lot of passion. Three Rajasthan Royals players were arrested for their involvement in spot-fixing, one of them being a prominent player, who had represented India with reasonable success – S. Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan. Soon, news emerged that another RR player Amit Singh had turned bookie, and was also held. Over the past fortnight, many appalling developments have taken place, with even the owner of Chennai Super Kings being arrested.

Kohli-Gambhir spat: Just a week into the tournament, Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir, both of whom have been India’s vice-captain at different points of time and, ironically, also play for the same state, were involved in an unruly spat during the match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kolkata Knight Riders. After Kohli was dismissed in the match, just having hit a couple of sixes, he intruded in Kolkata’s celebrations instead of heading back, passing a remark. This did not go down well with Gambhir, who angrily charged in the director of his Ranji mate. It looked very ugly. Period.

Kohli booed by crowd: The Bangalore captain was in the eye of a storm a few days later as well. He was booed by the Wankhede crowd during the game against Mumbai Indians. The home team spectators felt hard done by in a case pertaining to their batsman Ambati Rayudu in the game. Rayudu was controversially run out as, after he had grounded his bat, it got lifted following his collision with the bowler Vinay Kumar. At this very moment, Kohli’s throw hit the stumps, and the batsman was declared out

Dravid blasting Pollard: The Rajasthan Royals skipper rarely speaks a word against anybody. But, after their match against Mumbai, again at the Wankhede, he had a few harsh words for opponent Kieron Pollard. After dismissing Shane Watson in the encounter, Pollard charged towards the batsman, and celebrated wildly. Dravid termed Pollard’s antics an ‘act of cowardice’

Yusuf Pathan’s bizarre dismissal: The big hitter from KKRwas enraged after becoming the first player to be given out while obstructing the field. In the do-or-die clash against Pune Warriors, Pathan single-handedly seemed to be taking Kolkata to victory with a blistering innings. However, in the process of completing a run, Pathan kicked a ball, which was too close to the bowler, and was shown the door by the umpires..

Sreesanth’s splagate tweet: Silly Sreesanth was in the news even before the spot-fixing scandal came to light. Following the Kohli-Gambhir spat, ‘slapgate’ was back in the news, and Sreesanth ranted on Twitter that he was unnecessarily being made a villain in the whole controversy. He termed the incident ‘planned’, and even accused Harbhajan Singh of being a ‘back-stabber’.

--By A Cricket Analyst

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