Controversies in the history of IPL: Indian Premier League

The Indian Premier League is perhaps the world’s most famous T20 leagues. However, it has always involved in controversies. Ever since its commencement way back in 2008, there have been loads of them. But rather it helped IPL to raise additional recognition. Some of the controversies are here…

Slap Affair:  During 1^st season of IPL April, 2008 Mumbai Indians Skipper Harbhajan Singh slapped Sreesanth pacer of Kings XI Punjab. The incident occurred after Mumbai Indians lost the match to Kings XI Punjab. According to msources Sreesanth mocked Harbhajan Singh for losing the match. But later on Harbhajan Singh apologized of this mistake but till than it became one of the biggest hullabaloos of IPL.

The Maker enforced to leave the game: The master mind Lalit Modi who made the IPL so eminent was sacked. The representatives of the Kochi franchise complained to BCCI that Lalit Modi had threatened them to give up the franchise. A day after the IPL final on 24 April, BCCI suspended Modi on 22 charges, including sidestepping the governing council while taking verdicts, not following proper processes, tender rigging, awarding contracts to his friends, accepting kickbacks on a broadcast deal, selling franchises to members of his family, betting and money laundering. Soon after his suspension, Modi moved to London, where his wife Minal’s family lived.

IPL 2009 moved to South Africa:  Indian government was furious with the BCCI for moving IPL 2009 into South Africa. The Competition was moved outside the country due to security reasons.In turn, government jumped into the matter and ordered tax enquiries, investigations, court cases and raids. Files relating to IPL 2009 are still alive and it players and BCCI authority can be called for questioning any time. Although it was the second biggest cricket tournament in the world, after the Cricket World Cup and was forecast to have an estimated television audience of more than 200 million people in India alone.

Ravinder Jadeja barred for one season: Ravindra Jadeja one of the best all-rounders of Tests  in current scenario back in 2010 was expelled from playing in IPL after trying to sign a new contract with another franchise (allegedly Mumbai Indians) without informing his team Rajasthan Royals for whom he had played in earlier season.

IPL’s filthy secrets exposed by its cheerleaders: Mumbai India cheerleader Gabriella Pasuqualtto was fired during the mid of IPL 4 for revealing secrets of top players on blog. She reportedly wrote about “flirtatious” and “inappropriate” behavior by the cricketers and even mentioned some of them. South African media reported that her blogs created “privacy concerns” for the players.

Wayne Parnell and Rahul Sharma caught in the act, 2012:  The Two players of Pune Warriors, which is now a redundant franchise, Rahul Sharma and Wayne Parnell were detained for allegedly consuming drugs at a rage party in Mumbai.The cricketers found along with several other well-known characters from film and TV industry held, but let off after undergoing narcotic tests. However both the players, denied the claims. But in spite of the positive test results for drug use, no disciplinary action was taken against Raul Sharma.

Molesting Scandal Luke Pomersbach: Australian star batsmen Luke Pomersbach was arrested by the Delhi Police during the 2012 edition of the league for ostensibly molesting a woman. The American Indian woman alleged that Pomersbach captured into her room without her consent and even beat her fiancée, who tried to stop the 27-year-old. However, the case was settled by both parties outside the court and the charges against Pomersbach were consequently dropped.

King Khan Banned from entering Wankhede: Co-owner of Kolkata Knight Riders and Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan was banned by the Mumbai Cricket Association in May 2012 for five years from entering the Wankhede Stadium for disobedient behavior with its officials in an IPL match here.King Khan, who was alleged by the MCA to have shoved a security guard of the association besides chucking choice abuses at its officials after the IPL game on May 16 between KKR and Mumbai Indians, was in danger of life ban by some officials before the managing committee toned it down to a five-year era.

The IPL Spot-Fixing Scandal” The largest and the nastiest Indian Premier League scandal broke out in 2013 and it changed the face of Indian cricket forever. All arose when Delhi police arrested three cricketers of Rajasthan Royals S Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan on the charges of spot fixing. Eleven bookies were also arrested one of the bookies arrested was Amit Singh was former Rajasthan Royals player. In a separate case, Mumbai Police arrested Vindu Dara Singh and Gurunath Meiyappan team principal of Chennai Supper Kings and son-in-law off BCCI chief N Srinivasan alleged betting and having links with bookies. BCCI imposed life time ban on above three cricket players.

2013,Sri Lankan players constrained from playing in Chennai: Another controversy of IPL. Stating issue of security concerns in Chennai over the anxiety escalating in politics, Sri Lankan players were prohibited from playing any game in Chennai. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa was instrumental behind this move and the step was taken in retort of the Sri Lankan Tamils issue which controls Tamil politics.

Matches being rescheduled out of Maharashtra, 2016: IPL 9 witnessed another hullabaloo as 13 games were rescheduled out of Maharashtra keeping in mind the drought issues in the state. Maharashtra was certainly undergoing some serious water catastrophe due to which the Bombay High Court asked the BCCI to shift all the games outside Maharashtra after April 30, 2016.