10 Shameful incidents that put the game to disgrace

6. Match fixing scandals in 2000, 2009 and 2013

Match fixing or spot-fixing scandals have unfortunately been common in cricket. The game has been put into disgrace more than once by certain players by trying to spot fix or fix the match result. In 2000, Hansie Cronje admitted that he had accepted between $10,000 to $15,000 from a London-based bookie for forecasting results during the ODI series against India. The then Indian captain Mohammad Azharuddin was also accused of introducing Cronje to the bookie Mukesh Gupta.

After the 2000 match-fixing that rocked the entire cricketing world, the Pakistan players were found to have spot-fixed in the 2009 Test match at Lord’s. Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir, two of the best bowlers, were accused of bowling no-balls deliberately and their captain then, Salman Butt was the one to instigate them to do it. The three were respectively banned for seven, 10 and five years from the game.

This time, it was time for the IPL to get marred by the fixing controversy. In 2013, the three Rajasthan Royals players, S Sreesanth, Ankeet Chavan and Ajit Chandila, were arrested after their match at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai. They were accused of spot-fixing and though they were released due to lack of evidence later, the BCCI didn’t lift the ban on the players. Sreesanth’s ban though was lifted last year after number of hearings over the years.