The IPL Controversies!

The inaugural T20 league proved a big block buster. It was a far huge success than any body had imagined. This success was coupled with some controversies widely covered by national and international media. Now when the T20 tournament is over, let’s get a sneak peak into the sensational and tantalizing controversies.

Fifty-nine matches in six weeks, all big hits, included all kinds of MASALA, action and drama of a Bollywood hit! Millions of eyeballs were glued to the Television sets. To a great extent these controversies contributed towards the reported profit of about $100 million for the BCCI.

Exactly like the T20 version of cricket, the controversies, too, were short and entertaining. As soon as the one controversy ended, another one mushroomed up. All these controversies added spice to the game of cricket.

Even before the League could actually take a shape the first controversy emerged! BCCI’s strict media accreditation policy triggered a backlash. Many national and international agencies called it unethical. Later the Board dropped few strictures after the Editors Guild of India and the Indian Newspapers Society (INS) criticized the move, foreign news agencies like Reuters, Associated Press, AFP boycotted the event.

The biggest controversy was “CHANTA LAGA”! It was costliest slap in the history of Cricket! Harbhajan Singh, once called an ‘obnoxious weed’ by Australian Mathew Hayden, slapped Sreesanth during a match between Mumbai and Punjab. He was banned for the remainder of the Twenty20 league after he was found guilty by the disciplinary committee. Along with the ban Bhajji also faced the subsequent forfeiting of match fees of Rs three crores. So this proved the costliest slap of cricket history.

Second most controversial issue was of having the cheer leaders. Scantily-dressed cheerleaders stirred a moral debate with many people calling them `worse than bar dancers`. Many called their dance moves nothing less than making a mockery of cricket. But BCCI Vice-President Rajiv Shukla saw nothing wrong in the cheer girls adding glamour to the event.

The cheerleaders coming in all the way from the US earned the ire of leading people like Shatrughan Sinha and the Maharashtra unit of BJP. The cheer leaders were described as cricket’s item girls.

Other than the dress code and dance moves of these girls another story appeared world wide that some cheer leaders faced racism. Two British cheer leaders Ellesha Newton and Sherinne Anderson were allegedly prevented from performing at a match. The girls alleged that the `N word` (negroes) was used to describe them.

All the leading British newspapers carried the story about dancers claiming they were stopped from going on stage by organizers ahead of a match involving Punjab. The organizers Wizcraft International Entertainment denied any knowledge of such incident.

Everybody knows that Warne and controversies can not live separately for long so now it was Warne’s time to hit the headlines. This controversy was all about a catch taken by Smith to out Ganguly. Rajasthan captain Shane Warne slammed Kolkata’s captain Sourav Ganguly for wasting time and for refusing to accept the fielder’s word on a `clean catch` during their match. Sourav Ganguly responded saying he only laughs at those accusations. Both were fined 10 per cent of their match fee and reprimanded for their conduct by the disciplinary committee.

Media hype was also generated when the internal bickering of the Bangalore team came out in the open. The team owner Vijay Mallya lashed out at captain Rahul Dravid and sacked CEO Charu Sharma for the side’s pathetic show. Sharma, on the other hand, dismissed Mallya’s accusation saying he had no role in the selection of players. Mallya’s team was ridiculed much as it was declared a Test team in Twenty20.

Another controversy arose when Shah Rukh Khan was barred from going to his team’s dressing room. King Khan was visibly disturbed and reacted in front of media by saying that he was disappointed at the behavior of ICC. Another Bollywood star Preity Zinta also made much news due to her frequent hugs being showered on her team players! The whole media was tongue in cheek with her hugs showers especially on captain Yuvraj Singh!

Finally the league is over but the controversies it created have a lot of spice even now! So we all enjoyed cricket with the DESI TARKA of all sorts of controversies! Long live Cricket and the spice involved in it!