Cricket XIs: Cricketing Criminals

 
Whilst not quite plunging to the depths of its Football cousin, Cricket has had its fair share of miscreants, scoundrels, cheats and downright rotters over the years. Here’s an XI of Cricket Criminals:

1. Mark Vermeulen – Assaulting a spectator, Arson: The former Zimbabwe batsman seems to be a couple of pennies short of a sixpence and in 2006, he really lost the plot. First, after being heckled during a Lancashire league match he reacted in a Cantonaesque fashion by first throwing the ball and then a metal boundary marker at a spectator. After being banned for a year he headed back home and promptly burned down Zimbabwe's cricket academy before twice demanding an audience with President Mugabe by banging on the gates of his presidential palace.

2. Navjot Sidhu – Culpable homicide: In December 2006, Sidhu – the veteran of 51 Tests for India - was found guilty and sentenced to a three-year prison term for culpable homicide. This followed a road rage incident in 1988, which left a 65-year old man dead from injuries inflicted by Sidhu. After an appeal, the Supreme Court stayed his conviction and sentence allowing Sidhu to contest and win the Amritsar parliamentary seat in February 2007. Politics seems an apt place for characters like Sidhu.

3. Peter Roebuck – Assault: The former Somerset captain was convicted at Taunton Crown Court in 2001 of assaulting three young South African cricketers he had offered to coach at his home in Devon. He had warned them beforehand that he would use corporal punishment if they failed to obey his "house rules", and subsequently caned all three boys on their buttocks at different times for “misbehaviour”. Roebuck escaped with a suspended jail sentence and destroyed reputation, admitting to the court that “obviously I misjudged the mood…” Quite. Roebuck scurried off to Australia where he is now a respected and brilliant cricket journalist.

4. Hansie Cronje, Mohammad Azharuddin, Saleem Malik, Salman Butt – Corruption, Match-fixing, Spot-fixing: Take your pick from this vile quartet of former international captains who all chose money and greed above their countries; corrupting younger team members and plunging cricket into crisis in the bargain. It’s a shame that the number 11 in our XI didn’t save a bullet each for this disgraced foursome although given Cronje’s demise in a plane crash we could save two bullets for Butt. Just to make sure. 

5. Jacob Martin – Alleged People Trafficking: Martin, who played 10 ODIs for India between 1999 and 2001, was arrested at the end of April 2011 after evidence that he had been involved in a human trafficking incident in 2003. It is alleged that Martin formed a bogus team as cover for trafficking a young boy into the United Kingdom. It seems there may be a silver lining though for Martin, as reports have recently confirmed that he has made Tihar Jail’s 1st XI.

6. King Henry VIII– Cricket: Whether Henry VIII (who surely could have an all-rounder in the mould of W.G Grace) should be considered a criminal depends on your viewpoint of history. But he did criminalise the entire game of cricket at the height of the Reformation in 1536 when he ordered the youth of the realm to practice archery instead of "frivolous" activities "such as cricket-a-wicket". It is not known whether Anne Boleyn’s execution in the same year had anything to do with her playing surreptitious games of cricket with her ladies-in-waiting and the King’s Privy Council. 

7. Edward Pooley – Gambling, Match-fixing: Pooley would have been England’s wicket-keeper in the inaugural Test in Melbourne in 1877. Instead he got himself into a spot of bother after taking a wager on one of MCC’s tour matches in New Zealand, which resulted in a violent disagreement and a court appearance. This meant he literally missed the boat to Australia. Unsurprisingly, Pooley was never selected again and died in poverty in 1907.

8. Chris Lewis – Cocaine Trafficking: The former England all-rounder was jailed for 13 years in 2009 after being found guilty of smuggling cocaine into Britain. Lewis hid the drug in liquid form in tins of fruit and vegetable juice stashed in his kit bag. He always was a bit of a lemon,  not exactly renowned for his intelligence during a career that promised much but delivered little. Perhaps the best example of Lewis’s lack of faculty came when he decided to shave his head on a tour of the West Indies, and was dubbed ‘The Pratt without a Hat’ after being forced off the field with sunstroke.

9. Montague Druitt – Alleged serial killer, Jack the Ripper suspect: Druitt could well be the most notorious cricket criminal of them all. He was found drowned in the River Thames at the age of 31 in 1888. A keen all-rounder, he represented Winchester College, and the Morden Cricket Club of Blackheath amongst others. But Druitt may have led a sinister double-life with many Jack the Ripper experts concluding that Druitt was the man responsible for the infamous Whitechapel murders.

10. Terry Jenner – White collar robbery: The rehabilitated cricket criminal. A leg-spinner who played nine Tests for Australia in the 1970s, Jenner’s life nosedived after retiring and by 1988 he had lost his liberty after being caught stealing from his employer to repay gambling debts. Released after 18 months of his six-and-a-half-year term, Jenner hooked up with a young blond Victorian leg-spinner and the rest is history.

11. Leslie Hylton – Murder: He may not be a household name, but Hylton – a fast bowler who played six Tests for the West Indies in the 1930s - is the only Test cricketer to have been executed - for murdering his adulterous wife. It doesn’t appear to have been a case of a miscarriage of justice either as Hylton’s defence that he had meant to shoot himself but missed fell apart when it was revealed that his wife’s body had just the seven bullets in it.

Where next?

An XI of cricketers that died young

An XI of unlikely World Cup heroes and a not so heroic 12th man

10 reasons why Ian Botham may have worn sunglasses at the premiere of 'From the Ashes'

Cricket Zeroes: Chris Lewis and Salman Butt

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Comments

[Sandy]

I think you could add the new Aussie bowling coach to the list if the new cricketwithballs article is to be believed. Embezzelment seems a pretty good way to settle in this illustrious list.

[The Reverse Sweep]

Damn! That would have been a good link too. Cheers for reminding me.

[damiths]

No mention of Murali the Chucker as the guy who broke the law but never got caught ?

ps- how about a link back mate ? www.theflyslip.net ? Already added you!

[Lathers23]

Could probably include notrious fraudster and 'cricket lover' Allen Stanford.

[The Reverse Sweep]

In a battle with Henry VIII, Stanford lost out on on a tiebreaker of who had had the most wives (although it was close!).

[Lloyd]

I definitely reckon killing corrupt people would stop matches being fixed. Maybe if we kill all cricketers, there will be no matches that are fixed?

[The Reverse Sweep]

Do you know Jeremy Clarkson, Lloyd? :-)

[Air Jordan France]

So fun article is! I know more from it.

[TS]

Tillakaratne Dilshan

http://www.islandcricket.lk/blogs/ryan/dils
Dilshen - tour in Zimbabwe still remains a mystery.