Ever since the inception of the Indian Premier League, controversies have always been part of the tournament. Right from 2008, the cash-rich league has witnessed a number issues ranging from ‘slap-gate’ to spot-fixing. We even saw two teams getting suspended because of their alleged involvement in the spot-fixing saga and that surely was one of the blips that tarnished the image of the league.
This year too, there was no exception either,as we saw quite a lot of controversies marring the spirit of the IPL 2016 and making the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Here are the top 10 controversies of IPL 2016 which brought a lot of negative light on the league.
10) The Kieran Pollard-Dwayne Bravo ‘altercation’
Well, Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo are two of the most theatrical characters on the cricket field and the duo got involved in an ‘alleged’ altercation when their teams, the Mumbai Indians and Gujarat Lions, squared off.
In the 14th over of the MI innings, Pollard stopped Bravo from bowling a delivery as he was not ready. When Pollard blocked the next ball, Bravo picked it up on his follow through and pushed himself up close to Pollard. The Mumbai Indians player was unfazed by Bravo’s antics and held his bat in a manner that suggested he would hit Bravo.
Known to be the best friends, the two all-rounders raised questions of a serious spat and many wondered if the IPL had caused a division between the players.
However, the duo revealed later that it was just friendly banter and there was nothing to be taken seriously from the incident.
9) Virat Kohli’s catch against the Gujarat Lions
In the first Qualifier between the Gujarat Lions and Royal Challengers Bangalore, RCB skipper Virat Kohli took a blinder of a catch to dismiss Gujarat batsman Eklavya Dwivedi.
But the catch didn’t make the headlines for the right reasons.
Virat took a superb catch and threw the ball instantaneously to show his joy. He also ran off the field which led the umpires to think that the catch was not properly taken. A bemused Virat asked the umpires what happened and the officials decided to refer it to the third umpire.
The replays showed that the catch was legitimate and extinguished any sort of doubt. But surely, it led to a bit of confusion as well as controversy.
8) Rumoured dressing room brawl
The rumoured dressing room brawl inside the Kings XI Punjab team created a lot of ruckus in the IPL 2016 before the players vehemently denied it and slammed the Indian media for publishing such news.
It was reported that Australian batsman Shaun Marsh left the tournament not because of an injury but due to a dressing room clash with a teammate.
Overseas players like Glenn Maxwell, Kyle Abbott and David Miller vehemently denied the reports and rubbished the rumours on social media.
KXIP had a terrible IPL 2016 as they finished at the bottom of the table and rumours like these surely didn’t help their cause either.
7) Gautam Gambhir’s throw at the non-striker’s end
The Kolkata Knight Riders skipper Gautam Gambhir, who has often been embroiled in controversies, got involved into another during the match against the Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Eden Gardens.
KKR batting first put a score of 183 on the board which was easily chased down by RCB and the Bangalore team won the match by 9 wickets.
In the 19th over of the match, Virat Kohli hit the ball towards the point which was fielded by Gambhir. Then out of nowhere Gambhir threw the ball towards the non-striker's end, where Kohli was standing after completing the run. The RCB captain, who got hit on the hand during the game, was completely taken aback.
The on-field umpires saw the incident and had a talk with Gambhir which presumably miffed the southpaw. It also led to an altercation between the officials and the KKR skipper and the reason behind the sudden anger remained unclear.
Virat played a stupendous knock to guide his team to the target and Gambhir might have been ruing an opportunity that he missed. He dropped a simple catch of Kohli and some people thought that the incident was just out of sheer frustration.
Again behaviour which was totally uncalled for. Gambhir even earned a lot of flak on social media.
6) The Praveen Kumar-David Warner incident
In the all-important second Qualifier of the IPL 2016, the Gujarat Lions locked horns with the Sunrisers Hyderabad and the match was a high-voltage affair.
Gujarat batting first put 162 on the board and they looked well on course to book a place in the final as they had the opposition on the mat. However, talismanic SRH skipper David Warner had other ideas as he stayed firm and scored an unbeaten 93 to propel his side to the final.
But an incident took place in the 17th over the SRH innings when the tempestuous Gujarat Lions bowler Praveen Kumar, perhaps out of sheer frustration, had a go at Warner. He bowled a yorker to the southpaw and the batsman somehow managed to fend the ball back to the bowler.
Then Praveen picked the ball up, swivelled around, and threatened to throw it back at the batsman. Warner, unperturbed by the seamer’s antics, had a wry smile on his face which prompted the bowler to walk up to Warner.
He kept approaching Warner, who continued smiling until they were almost within touching distance. At this point, the umpire Marais Erasmus rushed towards them and the GL wicket keeper Dinesh Karthik also intervened to calm the angry seamer.
Later in the game, Warner had the last laugh as he hit the winning runs off the bowler and jumped in ecstasy.
Praveen, who has had behavioural problems in the past, surely added another controversy to his name.
5) The drought issue
This was one of the major controversies of this year’s IPL as drought-affected states in Maharashtra and other areas forced some IPL matches to get shifted.
The Bombay High Court ordered the BCCI to shift the matches from Maharashtra keeping in mind the worsening state of drought in the state. The final which was slated to take place at the Wankhede had to be shifted to the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore as well.
Former greats like Sunil Gavaskar and Rahul Dravid felt that the IPL was being unnecessary blamed for the debacle and there are other reasons as well.
The saga surely stirred a lot of problems as plenty of matches had to be shifted and rescheduled quickly.
4) The toss between KKR and KXIP
In the match between the Kolkata Knight Riders and Kings XI Punjab at the Eden Gardens, a bizarre incident took place at the toss.
Ravi Shastri, who was commentating from the middle, introduced the two captains, KKR’s Gautam Gambhir and KXIP’s Murali Vijay along with the match referee. Gambhir being the home skipper, flipped the coin and Vijay called it a ‘’heads’’.
Being asked by Shastri what the result was, the match referee clearly said: “Tail it is”. But surprisingly, Shastri called Vijay and after a bit of confusion between him and Gambhir, the Kings XI captain came ahead, shook Shastri’s hands and decided to bowl first.
Nonetheless, the toss didn’t cost much to KKR as they won the game by 7 runs. KXIP star Glenn Maxwell did give the hosts some nervy moments, but in the end, they prevailed thanks to some brilliant death bowling by Andre Russell.
It is possible that either Shastri or the match referee stated erroneously during the toss, thus causing the confusion. But there lies a big question: Why did Shastri go to Vijay despite the fact that he had called “heads” and the coin had landed as “tails”?
3) Gautam Gambhir kicking a chair
It is natural for a captain to express his joy after his team’s win. But the Kolkata Knight Riders skipper went a step too far after a scintillating victory over the Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.
KKR looked out of the contest at one stage and it was the partnership between Andre Russell and Yusuf Pathan which brought them back to the game. They won the match but it was not their win which only made the headlines.
The Gambhir incident took place when the fourth ball of the 19th over was swept to the square leg boundary by Surya Kumar Yadav. The boundary brought down the equation to two runs off eight balls and the captain just couldn't control himself.
All the while he was sitting in the dugout with his pads on and watching an incredible fight-back by Pathan and Russell but as soon as the ball touched the ropes, the KKR skipper got up from his chair and kicked it down while shouting loud.
2) Harsha Bhogle not part of the tournament
The television viewers of the IPL 2016 didn’t get to hear the quintessential voice of Harsha Bhogle this season as his contract with the lucrative league was unceremoniously terminated just before the start of the tournament.
The exclusion of the renowned commentator, who has been donning the commentator’s hat in the lucrative league for the last eight editions, earned a lot of flak on social media.
It even gave rise to the speculations that Bhogle was omitted because of his ‘unbiased’ stance during the ICC T20 World Cup 2016. Other stories also cropped up before the man in question responded about his sudden ouster.
The news surely made the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
1) The Harbhajan Singh- Ambati Rayudu Spat
Two teammates fighting with each other on the cricket field? Yes, something outrageous like this happened in IPL 2016 when Mumbai Indians cricketers Harbhajan Singh and Ambati Rayudu had an ugly confrontation on the cricket field.
The unseemly incident took place in the match between the Mumbai Indians and Rising Pune Supergiants. In the 11th over of the RPS innings, confusion between two fielders Tim Southee and Ambati Rayudu saw the ball cross the ropes and the bowler Harbhajan Singh shouted out.
However, Rayudu didn’t take too kindly to Harbhajan's anger and started running towards him.
Harbhajan did try to calm Rayudu and gave pat him on the back but Rayudu didn’t look too pleased with that gesture as he extricated himself from his grasp and told Harbhajan to go back to bowling.
The incident didn’t look good at all and created unnecessary drama in the game.
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