Five incidents that shocked the cricketing world

Being a sport which is predominantly played between nations, there’s always an emotional angle attached to our beloved players and teams. But when the game gets castigated for adverse reasons, it becomes a lamenting affair for us as ardent fans. Sometimes even a sudden retirement of a legendary cricketer or an unexpected demise of our cricket hero can mould shockwaves in the cricketing fraternity. With the game being as uncertain as our lives here’s a list of five incidents which entirely shook the cricketing world.

5. AB de Villiers Retirement

The incident had sent shockwaves when the world’s best batsman at that moment had announced his retirement from international cricket. What made De Villiers’ retirement more dreadful was because the 2019 World Cup was about to commence in a year’s time and De Villiers was one of South Africa’s premier players to give them a chance. International cricket’s mental strain and having a young family were two of the highlighting reasons given by De Villiers for his shocking retirement. His inferior relationship with the South African cricket board is also one of the speculated reasons which propelled him into such a decision.

I’ve made a big decision today pic.twitter.com/In0jyquPOK

— AB de Villiers (@ABdeVilliers17) May 23, 2018

4. Ball-tampering incident (Sandpaper gate)

Although Australians prefer playing the sport hard, playing it fairly is one of their earnest principles. Despite just being part of a ball-tampering incident the amount of humiliation which the Australian cricket had faced from the cricketing world was just inflammable. The series between South Africa and Australia had already experienced an ugly episode before between Warner and De Kock but when this incident occurred, the Australian cricket did enter into shambles. Steve Smith and David Warner both faced an imposing one-year ban which jolted the national team into despair.

Australian fielder Cameron Bancroft hastily putting a mystery yellow, seemingly sandpaper-like device down the front of his trousers pic.twitter.com/9oHDKF6yYp

— Offshore Diver (@cuzzdive) March 24, 2018

3. Bob Woolmer’s death

Just when Pakistan had a horrendous exit from the 2007 World Cup where they were outplayed by Ireland, unfortunately, their head coach Bob Woolmer was found dead a day after in his hotel room. Although the reports showed that Woolmer’s death had taken place because of a heart attack, the initial investigation carried out by Jamaican Police suggested that his death occurred because of asphyxia via manual strangulation thus indicating a possible murder. Later on, as per the concluded investigation, Woolmer’s death cause was declared because of natural reasons rather than a murder. The entire incident was a repulsive event especially at a time when a World Cup was on.

2. Dean Jones passing away

The cricketing received shocking news on 24th Septemeber 2020. Former Australian cricketer and coach of many T20 teams Dean Jones passed away after suffering a heart attack. The Australian legend was in Mumbai at that time since he was covering the Indian Premier League as an expert for Star Sports. His sudden death caused great grief in the cricketing fraternity.

Celebrating the life of Dean Jones ❤️

A wonderful tribute during the tea break at his beloved MCG #AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/xLAEmiW5AJ

— Australian Cricketers’ Association (@ACA_Players) December 26, 2020

1. Terrorist attack on Sri Lankan players in Pakistan

Also being termed as ‘The Lahore Attack’ the incident is surely one of the most grieving moments in the history of the game. The shocking incident occurred when Sri Lankans were going into the third day’s play of the second Test against the host and while passing on their way to Gaddafi Stadium, their team bus was fired upon by 12 gunmen. Six members of the Sri Lankan team were wounded and six Pakistani policemen and two civilians were killed. The incident had plunged Pakistan’s cricket into the wilderness for at least a decade.