Ranking the 5 worst cricket controversies since 2000

Since the start of this millennium, cricket has certainly been through a roller-coaster ride. Through numerous ups and downs, the game has taken a different shape from the time it was played on covered wickets with a red ball and the possibility of using floodlights nowhere in the picture.

Since 2000, the game has been witness to a number of terrible controversies, that has shaken everyone's perception about the fairness of the sport from time-to-time.

Let's have a look at five incidents which had a massive impact, not just on the game but in the fraternity in general.

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#5 When India lost trust in its players

18 years ago, Indian cricket faced perhaps it's worst nightmare in its history when four players were accused of match-fixing and introducing players to bookmakers.

Mohammad Azharuddin, Ajay Jadeja, Ajay Sharma, and Manoj Prabhakar were the Indian players in question.

Azharuddin was handed a life ban while the other three were handed five-year bans by the BCCI, in connection to their involvement in these matters.

It was a time when Indian cricket's credibility had gone for a toss and it won't be wrong to say that the Indian cricket fan too had lost faith in its players.

It took the likes of Sourav Ganguly and few other outstanding men to stand up and restructure the image of Indian cricket.

What happened when they took over to do that will have a separate page when the history of the game in India is ever written.

#4 When Pakistan forfeited a Test match

The umpires with Inzamam checking the condition of the ball

The Pakistan vs England series of 2006 was nearing its end with the latter already having won the series with one Test to go at The Oval.

It is, however, for that game that the series is remembered whenever it comes up for any form of discussion.

During the fourth day of the Test match, umpires Darell Hair and Billy Doctrove were of the opinion that the Pakistani cricketers had lifted a quarter of the seam in the ball and so it had to be changed.

Post the tea break, the visitors led by Inzamam-Ul-Haq refused to take the field in protest of the umpire's decision and after waiting for 20 minutes, the umpires made their way into their dressing room, asked the skipper if his side would take the field or not and when they didn't receive an answer in the affirmative, decided to award the game to England.

Inzamam was banned for four ODIs for having bought the game into disrepute while Hair was banned from officiating in international matches in November that year.

#3 When Australia planned to indulge in ball tampering

Both players will miss the last Test at Johannesburg

The most recent controversy of the lot, Australian opener Cameron Bancroft was caught on-camera trying to alter the condition of the ball, using sandpaper

At the press conference at the end of the third day's play of the third Test between Australia and South Africa in Cape Town, skipper Steve Smith admitted that it was a planned course of action masterminded by a 'leadership group' within the side.

The following day, Smith and David Warner stood down as the captain and the vice-captain of the side. The former was handed a one-match ban along with being docked 100 percent of his match fee while Bancroft was charged 75 percent of his match fee with three demerit points.

In a press conference, addressed by Cricket Australia Chief Executive James Sutherland, he said all three players- Smith, Warner and Bancroft- would depart for home ahead of the last game while Tim Paine will lead the side in the match. Glenn Maxwell, Joe Burns and Matt Renshaw will replace the trio in the tournament.

#2 When Harbhajan Singh was accused of racial abuse

Harbhajan and Tendulkar with the umpires at Sydney in 2008

Post the match-fixing saga that hit Indian cricket in 2000, if there was one other hour which was as forgettable as that, it was the entire 'Monkeygate' scandal which hit them in the first month of 2008.

The scandal involved off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, who was accused of having called Andrew Symonds a 'monkey' in a verbal altercation between the duo in the third day of the second Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

Sachin Tendulkar, who was at the other end when the incident occurred, recalls in his book that the off-spinner had used the Indian slang "Teri Maa Ki" and not called Symonds a 'monkey', as thought by him.

After the testimony hearing at the conclusion of the game, Harbhajan was slapped with a three-Test ban, which was not taken lightly by the team management who decided to stay put in Sydney rather than heading to Canberra, calling the decision 'unfair'.

However, at the conclusion of the fourth Test at Adelaide, Harbhajan's ban was lifted and he was instead fine 50 percent of his match fee after the racial charges against him was 'not proved'.

#1 When cricket was rocked by 'spot-fixing'

Amir made a return to Lord's in 2016, six years after being one of the protagonists in cricket's worst scandal

It was undoubtedly Pakistan cricket's darkest hour and arguably, cricket's as well.

In August 2010, The News Of The World tabloid in England had alleged that three Pakistan players - Mohammad Amir, Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif - had indulged in spot-fixing with the bowlers agreeing to deliberately bowl 'no-balls' in return for large sums of money, sending shockwaves across the entire cricketing fraternity.

In February 2011, Butt was handed a 10-year suspension from the game, Amir a five-year suspension and Asif a seven-year ban from the game.

In November later that year, Butt and Asif were found guilty and sentenced to jail for two-and-a-half years and one year respectively. Amir was sentenced to jail for six months.

The suspension on Amir was relaxed in April 2015 and the fast bowler made a comeback to international cricket in January 2016.