Naturally Cricket is called as Gentleman’s game. Being a Cricketer a player and Ideal for many, he must be away from all types of illegal activities in and out of the field. But some of the players brought bad fame to the game. Being a successful player, their attitude made them calling Bad Boys of Cricket.
Here is the list of Top Ten Bad Boys in Cricket:
10. David Boon (Australia):
This batsman with moustache was an obdurate opener for the Aussies in the Eighties and early Nineties, scoring loads of runs, which of them came mostly against England.
However, this Tasmanian may be most fondly remembered for the remarkable achievement of consuming 52 cans of beer on Australia’s flight over to the UK ahead of their successful 1989 Ashes tour.
9. Inzamam-Ul-Haq (Pakistan):
The Pakistan captain who was well known for not being the fastest mover on a cricket pitch, changed during an ODI against arch-rivals India in Toronto in 1997.
After a supporter with a megaphone had spent most of the match calling Inzy a “fat potato,” Inzaman finally broke and walked into the crowd before attacking the fan. A mini riot then ensued, with those present still to this day claiming that they have never seen the big man use such a turn of speed before or since.
8. Mohammad Asif (Pakistan):
Mohammad Asif, a brilliant swing bowler has also had a good friendship with bad things from the starting of his career, including getting done for both performance and taking banned drugs, although it was his involvement in the 2010 spot-fixing that hit the sport for which he will always be remembered.
As a result, this Pakistani was banned for seven years, after being found guilty of wontedly delivering no-balls during the fourth Test against England at Lord’s that summer.
7. Ian Botham (England):
The greatest all-rounder of the game has ever seen? Without any doubt he was Sir Ian Botham. He made friendship with controversies throughout his career.
So much so that in 1986 he was banned for two months by the Test and County Cricket Board for “bringing the game into disrepute by using cannabis“.
After it, he marked his return to the England team by taking a wicket with the very first ball of his comeback against New Zealand at the Oval, with Graham Gooch, who had taken the catch at slip to complete the dismissal, famously remarking: “Who writes his scripts then?”
6. Herschelle Gibbs (South Africa):
Herschelle Gibbs is a talented South Africa opener. He faced allegations of racism during his career, while the right-handed batsman was also fined after being caught smoking marijuana on the beach with team-mates while on South Africa’s tour of West Indies in 2001. And then most famous one of all, Gibbs agreed before the King Commission that he had accepted $15,000 from Ex-captain Hansie Cronje in return for scoring 20 runs or less in a one-day international (ODI) in India. In the end though, the right-handed batsman went against the plan by making 74, for which his skipper refused to pick him for six months.
5. Salman Butt (Pakistan):
In the summer of 2010, Pakistan’s highly respected captain was found out to have been at the centre of a match-fixing scandal involving his two main fast bowlers, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer, on their disgraceful tour of England.
Butt had received money from bookmakers in return for forcing his pace man to bowl no-balls at specific times of a Test match, while he himself had also agreed to score a certain amount of runs in an innings. As a result, he was hit with a 30-month jail term and a 10 year ban from the sport.
4. Shane Warne (Australia):
Without doubt the greatest spinner the game has ever seen, but Warne’s career has not been without controversies.
Firstly, in Dec 1998 the Australian Cricket Board revealed that it had fined the leg spinner and batsman Mark Waugh three years earlier for accepting money from an Indian bookmaker in for giving information on pitch and weather conditions, as well as news about team line-ups, while on tour of Sri Lanka.
And then most famously of all, Warne was sent back home on the eve of the 2003 ICC World Cup in South Africa after been tested out positive for a banned drug, which actually turned out to be a slimming pill that his mum had given him.
3. Shoaib Akthar (Pakistan):
Shoaib Akthar, being the one of the speediest fast bowlers also was known for his attitude and indiscipline. He came in to spot light by criticizing former Pakistani greats in an interview, which did not go down well with many. And after four months of the World Cup, he infamously became the second bowler in the history of ODI cricket to be charged off ball tampering. He was banned again, a year after he abused one of the Zimbabwean players on the tour of Zimbabwe. But he did not learn from that lesson, as he was banned for one ODI and two Tests for abusing South Africa’s Paul Adams in the home series of 2003.
His relationship with then captain Inzamam-ul-Haq and Coach Bob Woolmer spoiled to a huge extent. He began 2005 on a bad note as he was sent home by the team management from the crucial tour of Australia, the reason being his poor attitude and indiscipline. He made a blink of the eye return against England in a Test series at home and starred in the team’s win, which made his relationship with the captain and coach slightly better.
In February 2006, he was accused of taking performance enhancing drugs alongside Mohammad Asif in the ICC Champions Trophy 2006 in India. Since they were illegal to be used, Shoaib was banned for two years. Even before he was already known that he was a playboy and a party animal, who would not mind having a fun night to satisfy his pleasures or sit in a fashion show a day before a match.
2. Ricky Ponting (Australia):
Ricky Ponting, the man who is known for was the most successful captain of all-time and second leading run-scorer. In 1998, Australia toured India. During the second Test in Kolkata, some of the Australian players went out to a nightclub in order to refresh and get ready for playing. Ponting was one of them but he was accused of misbehaving with some women there, because he was completely drunk. And as a result, he was thrown out of the nightclub by the security guards within two hours of his entering.
Ponting complained that he had a fight with one of the security guards but he did not misbehave with any woman, since he was busy celebrating North Melbourne’s win in the national football competition. A couple of months later and he were struggling with his batting form. During the traditional triangular series at home after the New Years, Ponting was involved in not just a minor quarrel, but a major fight with an unidentified man outside a pub in New South Wales. To prove it, he showed a black eye in the fight and had to speak about it in a press conference which was to be shown on national television.
A humiliated and sorry Ponting admitted then that he was an alcoholic and needed guidance to reconstruct his career. But what set Ponting apart from the rest of the crop of the bad boys, was that the incident woke him and made him realize that if he was to make it big in the game of cricket, he had to change his attitude off the field. He eventually managed to discipline himself so much so that he was made the captain of Australia for the first time in March 2002 in ODIs and in March 2004 in Test matches.
1. Andrew Symonds (Australia):
Andrew Symonds the most controversial player in the Cricket sport, who could be called as the bad boy of all the bad boys. He was a pure alcoholic as well, and in 2009 it was ironically in England where another mishap took place. Symonds’ drinking did not go down too well with Ponting this time and as a result, he was sent back home just before the T20 tournament began. But due to that expulsion in 2009, his central contract was taken away by Cricket Australia and that was the indication that everyone had tolerated enough of Symonds.
But in 2008 as well, his dwindling interest in cricket was shown when he skipped a crucial team meeting for going out fishing, before an ODI game against Bangladesh. At the beginning of that year, he was primarily involved in one of the ugliest incidents in the game of cricket. He accused Harbhajan Singh of calling him a ‘monkey’ during the New Year’s Test at Sydney against India. Australia may have won the game, but this incident was a matter of pride for both the countries and that incident was marked as “Sydney Gate” in the cricket history.
In a radio interview in the 2008-09 season, Symonds’ another controversy when he abused New Zealand’s Brendon McCullum when asked to talk about New South Wales buying him for the T20 competition in Australia. He later went on to reveal how much he loved going to ex-teammate Matthew Hayden’s house for dinner often, only to see his wife.