Top 10 cricket controversies of the decade

Modified Jan 30, 2020 23:25 IST

Does Pakistan's spot fixing scandal feature? (Credits: The Express Tribune)

#6 The Harsha Bhogle-Sanjay Manjrekar spat

Sanjay Manjrekar is never too shy of a few unsavoury words (Credits: Scroll)

The 1st day-night Test in India marked a new era for Indian cricket. Unsurprisingly, there was palpable excitement across the aisles as several rejoiced in the prospect of watching a Test under lights.

Among all the furore though, Sanjay Manjrekar embroiled himself in his customary controversy.

On air with Harsha Bhogle, the pair discussed the visibility of the pink ball. At that juncture, Mr. Manjrekar decided to remind the former his lack of playing experience, stating that those who played enough of the game didn’t have any issues about spotting the ball.

The comments by the former Indian cricketer were extremely distasteful and irked the Indian faithful significantly. However, one reckons that such remarks wouldn’t be too far away when Manjrekar is on commentary and one can probably expect another such controversy to crop up, even after the turn of the decade.

#5 Ben Stokes responds to The Sun’s obnoxious remarks

Stokes wasn't happy with The Sun

The Sun, one of England’s leading publications, has often taken it upon themselves to brew a controversy out of nothing. And, they were at it in September 2019 too when they published a rather disgusting story involving a tragedy that had engulfed Ben Stokes’ family, 31 years ago.

To compound matters, they sent reporters to the all-rounder’s house in New Zealand to get a possible lead. Stokes wasn’t too pleased with the newspaper’s antics and he responded with a powerful message, calling out The Sun for indulging in the ‘lowest form of journalism’ and asking for people to allow his family to recover.

More detestably though, the publication, courtesy the Stokes episode, had furthered a rather unwanted reputation of ‘sensationalising’ matters for their own gain. It seems a new dawn isn’t on the horizon for The Sun anytime soon.