Cricket was always termed as the Gentleman’s game, but incidents from past few decades has raised a big questionnaire; not only on cricket but for majority of Sports. Players, coaches and others often getting involved in illegal and unsavoury incidents that do not show the sport or themselves as a real sportsman.
From match fixing to hitting one another on ground , from Sex scandals to drugs and doping; we do have several incidents in records which are proven dents on sports.
Here are 5 of the Controversy which are proven disgrace for players as well as sports industry.
Cricket – Indian Deepti Sharma’s Mankad controversy
A recent Controversial run out by Indian Women cricket Player Deepti Sharma against England has initiated a long debate and roar around the world among several cricket experts. Recently, Mankand was among the top trends on the internet due to this controversy in Asian subcontinent as well as UK.
What was the incident?
In a recent match against England, Indian player Deepti Sharma dismissed England batter Dean While chasing 170 runs through Mankading. At the non-striker’s end Deepti saw Dean outside the crease and she quickly removed the bails before completing her delivery stride. This mode of dismissal is currently listed as ‘Unfair Play’ section of the laws but is set to be moved to the ‘Run Out’ section very soon when new updated ICC Playing Conditions comes into effect. In a press conference Deepti said that before taking the bails off she had warned Dean multiple times. Indian Women captain Harmanpreet also backed Deepti stating that England player Dean was taking the long strikes and undue advantage, it was just Deepti’s awareness that she responded to the situation. It was not the part of the plan, but it happened and whatever we did it was within the rules.
Canada sexual assault scandal – Ice Hockey
Incident was reported that in May 2022, the governing body (Hockey Canada) for the sport of ice hockey in Canada—had paid a settlement to a woman who purported that she was the victim of a sexual assault inflicted in 2018 by few members of Canada’s men’s national junior team. Next month in June ,2022, Minister for Sport suspended the funding of Hockey Canada with immediate effect and called for a further investigation to probe if public funds were used to fund the settlement. A further enquiry was opened against Hockey Canada’s handling of the allegations. This investigation further revealed a long history of sexual misconduct cases in the past raised against this organization and its doesn’t stop here ,more than C$7.5 million out of a “National Equity Fund was used since 1989 to pay out settlements in 21 sexual misconduct cases. As the consequences of this scandal most of the corporate sponsors ended their tenure with ‘Hockey Canada’ organization.
Currently in 2022 Canada Police is investigating three similar sexual assault allegations that occurred in 2003 and 2018.
Canadian Gymnasts Alleged Discrimination – Gymnastics
A group of more than 70 former and current gymnasts in Canada has launched a class-action lawsuit against Gymnastics Canada and six affiliated provincial organizations alleging that these bodies have turned a blind eye to years of physical, mental, sexual, and psychological abuse by coaches, staff-members, and other officials. In an open letter addressing Sport Canada, the athletes have called for an “independent, third-party investigation.” The allegation from gymnasts further added that we were regularly subjected to humiliation and threats. Coaches followed abusive culture and we were pushed into vicious eating disorders, frequently we were forced to do practice when we were injured this further resulted in severe injuries. The lawsuit added, the fear of nemesis has prevented other athletes from speaking out that for almost a decade.
In a response to this GymCan said that they are saddened to know that dozens of athletes feel that they failed to address these issues. GymCan is continuously committed and dedicated to educate and perform system-wide reforms that will create a good atmosphere for all gymnasts and everyone will feel respected and they are also working to create a complete safe training environment to prevent any injuries.
NFL Scandals – Dallas Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones
In March 2022, Jerry Jones- Dallas Cowboys President and general Manager was sued by a 25-Year-old Washington DC Woman Alexandra Davis who claimed that Jerry Jones is her biological father, and he paid her mother $375000 to keep silent about Child’s paternity in 1996. Alexandra has knocked the door of court in Dallas County to confirm that Jones is her father. Though Jones and his spokesperson has declined any comment on this topic. Cynthia Davis- mother of Alexandra has also refused to make any comment.
In recent months of 2022, Dallas Cowboys has been in the news again for non-football matters. In February 2022, ESPN revealed that Cowboys paid a multimillion-dollar settlement to their cheerleaders after a senior executive from Cowboys was alleged for filming the Cheerleaders in the AT&T Stadium locker rooms.
NFL Controversy- Deflate-Gate
Deflategate was a high media coverage controversy involving the allegation that New England Patriots QB Brady deliberately ordered the deflated footballs which were used on January 18, 2015, in the Patriots’ game against the Indianapolis Colts during the 2014 AFC Championship Game. New England Patriots won this game.
As the consequences of this event Tom Brady was suspended for four games and team was fined for whopping $1 million. At that time, Patriots head coach Bill Belichik indicated that he was not aware of anything about the balls being deflated until the day after the event took place.
Post that incident , The Patriots had submitted an amicus brief on behalf of Tom Brady, who filed a federal lawsuit against the league to overturn his suspension, straddling the line between NFL Whistleblower and stakeholder.
Yet its all over now , but still we have believers as well as good population which still says that Deflategate never happened. A reasonable person could be left even thinking that the investigation itself could be a the true scandal.
Further, NFL also changed the procedure going forward for monitoring football pressure.
