5 famous players whose careers ended because of controversies

#1 Duanne Olivier

Duanne Olivier gets ready to release the ball

When Sri Lanka toured South Africa in early February 2019 for a three-match Test series, nobody expected them to win. After all, South Africa had a world-class bowling attack and had won their last seven series at home.

But the tourists showed good skills to upset the apple cart and win 2-0.

Although it was a highly entertaining series, it was soon pushed to the background when a big controversy erupted. On 26 February, Duanne Olivier, a promising South African fast bowler, announced that he had signed a three-year Kolpak contract (which prohibits players from playing for their home country).

That caused a heated debate, and Olivier’s decision was criticized from all corners of the cricket fraternity - including Cricket South Africa (CSA), South Africa’s captain Faf du Plessis and former England international Kevin Pietersen.

With that, another immense talent was lost by South Africa.

…

Olivier made his international debut against Sri Lanka in February 2017. Using his pace and bounce to good effect, Olivier returned match-figures of 5-57.

Despite his brilliant debut, Olivier played in only five of South Africa’s next 19 Test matches (all of them in 2017 and 2018). The experienced trio of Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander and Morne Morkel was preferred (when fit) and, by his own admission, this was one of the major reasons why Olivier left for greener pastures.

In the matches that he played though, the fast bowler impressed with his dangerous bouncer and wicket-taking ability.

Back in the side, Olivier pulverized Pakistan with these weapons in the three-Test series in January 2019, when he took 24 wickets. He then snared seven wickets against the visiting Sri Lankans to ensure that he bowed out of international cricket (at least representing South Africa) on a high.