Biggest Controversies in IPL History

Indian Premier League (IPL) is the most popular T20 league in cricket. The cash rich tournament has given many big stars to international cricket since its inception in 2008. However, it also has its share of controversies but few of them shook the world of cricket.  Lets have a look at  these controversies-
1. The worst slap of them all
In the first season of IPL in 2008, Mumbai Indians had suffered defeat at the hands of Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings) and after the match Harbhajan Singh openly slapped Sreesanth which brought him into limelight for the wrong reason. This happened when players were about to shake hands after the match but Bhajji had something else in mind. Sreesanth was seeing crying standing alongside owner Preity Zinta and Kings XI Players. Harbhajan later apologized to Sreesanth in Punjab Dressing room.

2. Kohli & Gambhir Ugly Spat
Current Captain of Indian cricket team Virat Kohli and Former Indian cricket Gautam Gambhir had a heated argument during the match between Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in 2013. At that time, Gambhir was leading KKR while Kohli was leading RCB. The clash took place when Kohli got dismissed. Gambhir spoke something and then Kohli walked upto him in anger rather than walking towards the dug out. KKR players and umpire had to intervene to calm things down.

3. Spot-fixing scandal
Who can forget the spot-fixing incident in 2013 which threatened to shut down the IPL tournament once and forever. Three cricketers from Rajasthan Royals Team- S Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila, and Ankit Chavan were arrested on the charges of spot-fixing. After that they were banned from cricket for lifetime by BCCI, although Sreesanth’s quantum of punishment was reduced later.

4. Mankading incident
During IPL 2019, Ravichandran Ashwin grabbed eyeballs due to Mankading incident. Before Ashwin could release the ball, he noticed that Rajasthan Royals batsman Jos Buttler had stepped out of the crease. Seeing this Ashwin removed the bails and as a result, Buttler was dismissed. However, Ashwin received a lot of criticism on social media for this as there was no sportsman spirit shown.

5. Pollard vs Starc
This was an incident which could have led to one of the person in the hospital when Kieron Pollard threw the bat towards Australian pacer Mitchell Starc in anger. Starc was about to bowl to Pollard but the latter pulled out at the last moment. Starc could not stop himself and released the ball aimed at Pollard. The West indies cricketer thought that Starc was intentionally trying to hit him and in response threw the bat towards him. Fortunately, the bat did not hit Starc.