Top 5 controversies of the ICC World Cup 2015

Top 5 controversies of the ICC World Cup 2015: The 2015 ICC World Cup ended with Australia been crowned the World Champions for the 5th time. The tournaments saw its ups and downs, some exciting matches which got balanced by some real one-sided games. But one thing that this World Cup was not short of was controversy.

The World Cup saw its fair share of controversial moments both on and off the field and here we present the top 5 such moments of controversial nature tat occurred during the 2015 World Cup.

5. Moin Khan’s tryst with luck sends him back to Pakistan

Pakistan’s Chief Selector Moin Khan was asked to return home by the country’s cricket board after the former cricketer was spotted in a casino two days before their crucial tie against West Indies. This continued the trend of Pakistan’s World Cup campaigns being blighted by rather unfortunate controversies. Former World Cup winner in 1992 Moin was there with the Pakistani in the capacity of selector. While he was not an official member of the touring party and he didn’t break any disciplinary code, his presence in a casino created uproar. Gambling is considered illegal in Pakistan. Moin apologized about the incident in a meeting with PCB chief Shaharyar Khan, where he accepted that it was inappropriate of him to have visited the casino. He did however clarify that he had only gone there to have dinner with a few friends. But the Pakistani cricket Board decided to send him back to the country in order to diffuse the situation.

4. Tennis legend Roger Federer angers Pakistani fans for honoring sponsorship commitments.

India-Pakistan cricket match is more or less a war for its respective fans. The dedication to the teams border of hysteria amongst both the young and old fans of the game.

Several commercial brands try to cash in on euphoria to position their products or themselves better in the biggest spending markets of the world. However apparel giants ‘Nike’s marketing gimmick took an unintended turn. They circulated a picture of Tennis legend and Nike brand ambassador Roger Federer holding the India World Cup jersey (designed by Nike) in an apparent show of allegiance, during the first innings of the game. While Indian team supporters were happy by the support shown by great Federer, many of his ardent supporters from Pakistan didn’t took the said image in the light it was supposed to be seen in and voiced their displeasure on social media.

The public outrage forced the 17-time major winner into issuing a statement – “It was more of a Nike thing to be quite honest. It was a Nike campaign they had because I met some of the Indian players and I had just spent some time in India so they presented the shirt to me.”

Just shows that one has to be careful in even planning a commercial advert during an India-Pakistan match, especially in the tournaments like the cricket World Cup.

3. A controversial catch and its resulting ugly aftermath

Ireland’s group stage match against Zimbabwe was one of the best cricket matches of the recently concluded World Cup 2015, but it still managed to produce a long-drawn out controversial episode. In a defining and crucial moment during the Zimbabwe’s run-chase, Irish fielder John Mooney completed a catch on the boundary, too close to the ropes, to dismiss a well-set Sean Williams, who was taking Zimbabwe to the victory.

The slow motion replays remained inconclusive, whether the fielder’s feet touched the boundary rope while he was completing the catch; the 3rd umpire gave the benefit of the doubt, as widely expected to the batsman. Williams however took the word of the fielder and had already walked off the field.

Ireland went on to win the game narrowly by just five runs before the aftermath of the catch incident kicked in. Zimbabwe’s stand-in skipper Brendan Taylor’s statement, that he felt that his team had become victims of a World Cup miscarriage of justicbut added that one had to take the word of the fielder added fire to the already simmering issue.

The controversy took a turn for worse, when a Zimbabwe newspaper decided to publish an article with the headline ‘Alcoholic Mooney dumps Zim out of WC’ and proceeded to ridicule Mooney’s troubles and battles with issues such as alcohol and depression. An apology was issued to John Mooney by the stand-in skipper of Zimbabwe Brendan Taylor, who said that he hoped the personal attack on him would not discourage others with mental health problems from speaking up, hitting back at the newspaper.

2. James Taylor gets a well deserve hundred denied, due to umpire’s lack of knowledge of rules.

The marquee match between old rivals Australia-England on the first day of the World Cup at the MCG couldn’t live up to the built up it got as England performed totally out of form and suffered a heavy loss.

During the fag-end of the English chase, an umpiring error denied young English batsman James Taylor a chance to complete a maiden World Cup century and that too on his World Cup debut. Taylor who had scored 98 runs, as his team-mates fell like cycles on a cycle stand, was hit on the pads by Hazlewood and was given out leg-before wicket. Taylor, who in the meanwhile had set off for a single, instantly called for a decision review even as Glenn Maxwell knocked down the stumps to run out the No.11 batsman James Anderson at the other end.

While the DRS ruled Taylor not out on the LBW front, Anderson was given run-out leaving Taylor stranded two short of his ton. The commentators were appalled at the decision and read the DRS playing condition rule according to which, the ball should have been considered dead when the batsman was originally given out and no further runs or dismissals should have been possible.

The ICC acknowledged that the game ended incorrectly, next day after the incident and Taylor ended his maiden World Cup without a ton.

1. A No ball gets an entire nation incensed

Bangladesh beat England to enter their first ever World Cup quarter-final, got an unfortunate umpiring decision by square-leg umpire Aleem Dar, during the India innings of the QFs. Dar signaled for a waist-high full-toss bowled by Rubel Hossain as a no-ball. Rohit Sharma hit the ball straight into the hands of the fielder at deep square-leg off. Replays later indicated that the ball had clearly dipped below the waist and that the batsman should have been given out. Rohit proceeded to hit 137 helping knock Bangladesh out of the World Cup. Aleem Dar’s decision to rule that full toss a no ball sparked a public outrage in Bangladesh.

ICC president Bangladesh’s Mustafa Kamal was the first to voice his outrage saying he would have the ICC investigate the poor standard of umpiring in the World Cup. Even Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina claimed that her country would not have lost had the correct decision been given.

The ICC however put water over the fire by ruling the decision to call the no-ball as a 50-50 call and that the spirit of the game dictates that the umpire’s decision is final and must be respected. However umpire Aleem Dar did not officiate in any of the semi-finals or the final.