Infamous spats that blew the cricketing world

Cricket has often been called as ‘the gentlemen’s game’, but time and again we have witnessed the uglier side of the game too. At Kingsmead, when South Africa took on a ‘loud’ Australian team, action was guaranteed. But as it turned out, Australia’s deputy David Warner and Proteas’ wicket-keeper Quinton de Kock were engaged in a mini battle of their own.

During the tea interval on the fourth day’s play in Durban, Warner was seen having a go at de Kock while getting up the staircase. Skipper Steven Smith and Tim Paine tried to intervene and calm their teammate. Australia could only bag a single wicket in that session, as de Kock and Aiden Markram held the crease with some gritty strokes. This was not the first time that players were involved in heated altercations. Let’s take a look at some of the other infamous events:

Glenn McGrath-Ramnaresh Sarwan (2003)

West Indies took on Australia in their own backyard in Antigua and what didn’t fade was Glenn McGrath’s outburst against Windies batter Ramnaresh Sarwan. The Aussie pacer quizzed the batsman by asking him how Brian Lara’s nether region tasted like. Sarwan didn’t shy away and replied, “I don’t know. Ask your wife”. Sarwan wasn’t aware of Mcgrath’s wife’s ill status the, and the two almost ended up punching each other. Sarwan went on to guide his team to a record chase, scoring a stylish hundred.

Michale Clarke-James Anderson (2013)

One of the oldest rivalries in world cricket- The Ashes has presented some of the most nastiest happenings in the cricket field but nothing came close to Michael Clarke swearing at pacer James Anderson. Anderson and George Bailey had a few verbal volleys but things took a straight sharp turn when Clarke uttered “Pad up! Get ready for a broken f****** arm”. While most of the sleddings found its way to the witty bookshelves, this one was pure anger.

Harbhajan Singh-Shantakumaran Sreesanth (2008)

The Indian Premier League is the most popular T20 league in the cricketing world. Its inaugural season was a huge hit but there was no dearth of infamous scenes. Spinner Harbhajan Singh and pacer S Sreesanth have guided India to numerous victories together but when Bhajji slapped Sree, it went on to make news. While the incident was all over the channels, Sreesanth later revealed that it was all planned and that the veteran spinner had elbowed him, and didn’t slap.

This is newsfeed:

David Warner held back after jibe from Quinton de Kock about wife Candice

Twitter goes berserk as South Africa delay an Australian win