England, the nation of royalty, has also been acclaimed by the world to be the birthplace of cricket. Cricket has long been heralded as a sport of nobles, ‘The Gentleman’s Game’. English Cricket has seen a century and half worth of Ups & Downs. They have been through disastrous tours like Ashes 2013-14 to their most incredible moment, their maiden World Cup win in 2019. While gathering their most memorable moments, they also have their fair share of controversies. Here’s the list of top 10 controversies, English Cricket ever saw.

1. Body Line

This was the most significant controversy ever to include Englishmen. In 1930 Ashes, Sir Don Bradman made a joke out of English bowlers by scoring more than 950 runs in 5 matches, to regain the Ashes. In 1932, English captain Douglas Jardine sketched up a strategy to dismiss Australian batsmen, especially the dangerous Bradman. He instructed his pacers to bowl towards the body of the batsman in line with the leg stump, with regular bouncers. He placed all his fielders to the left, to catch the stray balls and desperate catches. This helped England to regain the Ashes. It also caused Bradman’s average to fall quite a bit. but the English team disgusted fans across the world, including their own fans, for using such underhanded methods. Surprisingly, Marylebone Cricket Club didn’t take any action, and the matter was buried in the hatchet.

2. 2019 World Cup Victory

Who would have guessed that England would win their maiden World Cup amidst a controversy? In the 2019 WC finals, New Zealand faced the host England. It was a chance for both sides to win their maiden World Cup. Winning the toss, Kiwis decided to bat first on a slow pitch. NZ managed to score 241/8 with the help of decent knocks from Henry Nicholls and Tom Latham. In reply, Kiwi pacers spat pure fiery spells to dismantle England whenever they started gaining momentum, Eventually, it all boiled down to 9 runs in 3 balls, that’s when the first controversy occurred, Ben Stokes, who was England’s best batsman of England that day, hit a ball deep and called for a double, but Guptill had other plans as he threw a near-perfect throw to the keeper if only Stokes’s bat didn’t come in between deflecting the ball to the boundary. With the above action still under ‘Overthrow’, it was awarded six runs instead of five runs. After the next two balls, England was all-out at 241. This leads to a Super Over, where scores again tied and England was awarded victory due to superior boundary count. Yet, Kiwi’s skipper Kane Williamson garnered the status of legend, by calmly accepting the decision and gained respect among his peers, former stars and cricketing fraternity worldwide.

3. 2003 World Cup Controversy

World Cup is Cricket’s grandest stage, once in every four years. In 2003, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya hosted this large-scale event. England was drafted in the same group as Zimbabwe, and both the teams needed a win to qualify for Super Sixers, that’s when the English Team received death threats over calls and letters, this combined with harsh human abuse conditions in Zimbabwe, forced England to forfeit their match against Zimbabwe for security reasons. ECB requested ICC to arrange a match on a later date, but that letter never reached ICC. This caused England to lose out a Super Six spot by 2 points.

4. Broad’s Unethical Stand

Cricket’s oldest rivalry, the Ashes never go on smoothly, the elegant English and the aggressive Aussies are like water and oil, they never sit well with each other. An event occurred on the 2013-14 Ashes when Stuart Broad nicked an Ashton Agar delivery to Michael Clarke at first slip. The ball was cleanly caught and the nick was clear, so what happened? Umpire Aleem Dar didn’t signal OUT, and Stuart Broad using this confusion to his advantage refused to walk. It led to England winning the match. It was after the series that Broad confessed that he knew he edged the ball. It acquired a lot of criticism from the cricketers across the world, for Broad disrespecting the spirit of cricket.

5. Atherton’s “Dirt In The Pocket” Incident

During all the scandal in the ’90s regarding ball-tampering, there was an unspoken implication that an English player would never stoop so low. So when Michael Atherton, then English captain was caught doing something fishy with the ball, he was suspected. When the umpires checked,  they found ‘dirt’ in his pocket. Law 42.5 states that “Nobody could rub the ball on the ground, use any artificial substance, or take action to alter the condition of the ball”, Atherton cleared the first two hurdles as he didn’t exactly rub the ball on the ground and dirt isn’t an artificial substance, but regarding the third part, he claimed he used dirt to ‘maintain’ not alter the condition of the ball. The problem started when a nervous Atherton confessed to the match umpire that he used dirt to dry his hands. While a conclusion couldn’t be reached, Atherton gained back public support to become their cult hero.

6. ECB And Vaughan Criticism On Indian   Pitches

The recent England tour of India was filled with surprises and controversies. With the tests being played on Chepauk (Chennai) and Motera (Ahmedabad), the eyes were raised on the very first day of the first test, as the ball started spinning on the second delivery of the very first day. ECB and Vaughan came blazing and complaining of the quality of pitches, calling them unsuitable to play, before a dare-devil 100* from Ravi Ashwin answered all the queries. This was followed by some impressive batting performances from Rohit Sharma, cameos from Rishabh Pant and Washington Sundar, with stable and controlled batting displays from Virat Kohli. The last nail in the coffin was when English skipper Joe Root himself scored centuries, eyebrows were raised on Vaughan’s and ECB’s comments on the pitch. Even after enigmatic displays of batting from Root, the English Team couldn’t rally to support the captain, which led to a 3-1 loss of series for England.

7. John Snow And Gavaskar Spat

India and England met each other in the latter’s home in 1971. During a Lord’s Test, John Snow, one of England’s bowling mainstay, was bowling the final delivery before lunch, to Farokh Engineer with an in-form Sunil Gavaskar on the other side of the pitch. The engineer pulled the delivery to the leg side and called for a quick single. John Snow went to collect the delivery and was a few steps ahead of the young Sunny, he thought Gavaskar was going to do what all batsmen do in this situation, “Run Over the Ball”, or so he says,  but Sunil Gavaskar dashed outside, and to Snow’s surprise they collided, which unsurprisingly sent lean Gavaskar flying. John Snow thrice apologized to Gavaskar and there was no bad blood between them, but MCC(Marylebone Cricket Club) didn’t let Snow go that easily, and suspended him on the basis of ‘disciplinary actions’ and effectively destroyed the career of one of their best fast bowler ever.

8. Pietersen’s Text-Gate

If you think KP surpassed heights of controversy earlier, you are well mistaken. KP is the controversy’s favorite child, and this time, he repeated his remarkable feat once again in front of the same opposition of South Africa, this time in English soil and this time against his captain, Andrew Strauss. Earlier that year, KP wasn’t allowed to participate in IPL by the collective decision of ECB and his captain. KP didn’t hold back his frustration but somehow moved on. Things got a lot tense between squad and KP in the second test against SA. KP was caught texting to Proteas mates, that Strauss is a ‘Doos’ . This was a coup de grace for KP’s remarkable, brilliant and controversial career.

9. Ian Bell Run-Out

During India’s tour of England in 2011, in Nottingham Test, an incident took place. Ian Bell,  who was in sublime touch that day, had already scored a ton and was proving to be too hot to handle. At the last ball of the third session, just before the tea break, Eoin Morgan shot a ball to the fence for four runs. After that, he and Ian walked back to the pavilion thinking the session’s ended. The only mistake was that ball was stopped by Praveen Kumar just before the boundary line, and everyone,  including Kumar, failed to notice that, except one very sharp MS Dhoni, as Kumar tossed the ball back to his skipper, MS dislodged bails and after a bit of deliberation, it was concluded that it was batsman’s error and Bell was declared run-out. Then again, considering Spirit of Cricket, above all, MS withdrew his appeal. This act earned him praises from several former players and pundits for withholding the spirit of the game.

10. Pietersen And Smith Rivalry

Kevin Pietersen was England’s finest batsman past decade. Known for his style and panache, Pietersen drew comparisons making him a modern-day great, but the Three Lions’ best player wasn’t far away when it came to controversies. KP once purposely targeted former South African captain Graeme Smith in his biography. In the 2005 England tour of South Africa, KP was slandered by South African fans for leaving SA to play for England, even Graeme Smith criticized KP’s decision. This saga continued till Smith retired.