Indian Premier League season five was the best season in terms of the quality of cricket goes, there were some outstanding performances with both bat and ball and from Indian as well as international players. IPL-5 saw a lot of close finishes and a number of last ball finishes lit up the season.

For the first time in the tournament history, the fourth team of the playoffs was decided in the penultimate match in the league stage. This time as many as seven teams were competing for the playoffs and the battle went till the last match.

There are a lot of positives that came out of the cash rich tournament, but there were some pretty forgettable moments off the field. IPL has always been surrounded by controversies and this season was no different.

Let’s have a look at some of the controversies that took the attention away from what was happening on the field.

Sahara India skips IPL auction: The first controversy that hit the tournament long before it started was that team India’s long time sponsors Sahara India announced that they will end all financial ties with the BCCI.  They owned Pune Warriors and it was unclear what role Pune Warriors will have in IPL-5. Sahara also skipped the player’s auction and things looked bad. However, after several meetings between BCCI and Sahara things came back to normal.

Spot-fixing allegations led to suspension of players: This was one of the most controversial incidents that hit IPL-5. There has always been allegation for spot-fixing in cricket and IPL had a first taste of it. A sting operation was conducted by a news channel showed cricketers engaging in controversial debate. Five players Shalabh Shrivastava, T.P. Sudhindra, Mohnish Mishra, Amit Yadav and Abhinav Bali were suspended by BCCI on the charges of spot-fixing. The issue took a political turn as well and will always remain as one of the worst thing that happened in IPL history.

Molestation charges on Luke Pomersbach: Zohal Hamid made molestation charges on Royal Challengers Bangalore’s Luke Pomersbach. Pomersbach was charged with molestation and also assault, he was arrested and later was given bail by the Delhi High Court. He charges said that Pomersbach molested the lady and beat her fiancé in a party in Delhi. Zohal dropped the charges later, but not before it was termed as the saddest moment.

Shah Rukh banned to enter Wankhede for five years: This incident grabbed the maximum eyeballs as it included one of the star of India. Shah Rukh Khan who is the owner of Kolkata Knight Riders got into a fight with Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) after a match in which his team defeated Mumbai Indians. MCA officials alleged that Shah Rukh was drunk and he started abusing and fighting when he was stopped from entering the stadium. Shah Rukh denied that he was drunk and said that MCA officials should apologies to him.


Cricketers detained from Rave party: The IPL was coming to its end, but the controversies won’t stop following it. Two cricketers from Pune Warriors, rahul Sharma and Wayne Parnell were detained from a Rave party by Mumbai police. Both the players denied that they do drugs and said that they were not aware that a rave party was going on. They said that they came to attend a birthday party. Both players underwent medical tests.

By Indian Sports News Network