‘The Gentleman’s Game’ has seen its fair share of shady characters over the years. Some shady cricketers have given the exciting sport a bad name with their on-field and off-field behavior. Active shady cricketers have engaged in illegal acts to get a quick cash reward or earn favors from other individuals.
The list of arrested shady cricketers is quite long, so we’ll focus on the top eleven. These eleven cricketers have brought shame to the game from their conduct across different seasons. Let’s check out the top XI arrested shady cricketers, the severity of their crime, their punishment(s), and other details.
Top Shady Cricketers Who Have Gotten Jailed or Arrested
Salman Butt
Pakistani cricketer Salman Butt was one of the most promising players to lose his career to shady dealings. The shady cricketer rose to become Pakistan’s captain at some point before his criminal dealings got ahead of him.
He started on a positive note, playing in 78 ODIs, 30+ Tests, amassing 4600+ runs throughout his career. However, Salman was indicted in a spot-fixing scandal, receiving a long-term ban from the ICC. After the 2010 ban, Butt will go on to spend 2½ years in prison for partaking in a betting scam.
Navjot Singh Sidhu
Navjot Singh Sidhu remains one of India’s longest-serving batters in history. The daring batter was in front of wickets for almost two decades for Team India before retiring. He featured in over 50 Tests and 130+ ODIs for the Men in Blue, racking up 7600+ runs, 48 half-centuries, and 15 centuries. Sidhu went into politics after his retirement, earning him more popularity in India.
He would be arrested in the late 1980s for a road rage issue and spend 12 months in jail after sentencing in 2022.
Hansie Cronje
Former South Africa skipper Hansie Cronje was arrested in the early 2000s for his involvement in a match-fixing industry. Cronje and British businessman Sanjeev Chawla collaborated with other individuals to carry out match-fixing in a large scale operation.
Cronje’s arrest was set to lead to jail time, but he died in a mysterious plane crash before any sentencing could be carried out. Cronje’s associate Chawla and other stakeholders in the scandal are still facing serious jail time for their involvement in match-fixing.
Kusal Mendis
Mendis was arrested for manslaughter in 2020 after hitting an old man in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The old man will later die from his injuries.
Yuvraj Singh
Singh was arrested in 2021 by police in Haryana on suspicion of anti-caste comments against a fellow cricketer. He would be released on bail later on by a high court order.
Ben Stokes
Stokes was arrested in 2017 after an assault charge was brought against him. Inconclusive evidence and witness accounts were enough to clear Stokes of wrongdoing; however, he spent a night in prison after his arrest.
Wasim Akram
Akram’s arrest for illegal drug possession was one of the highlights of cricket scandals in 1993. The ex-Pakistan skipper would later gain his freedom after the drugs were proved to not be illegal in Grenada.
Wasim would later be fingered in a match-fixing scandal that shook Pakistani cricket. His name was among the list of shady cricketers indicted by the popular Justice Qayyum Report into match-fixing in Pakistan.
S. Sreesanth
Indian cricketer S. Sreesanth was in top form and set to become one of the Men in Blue’s top players in history. However, none will go according to plan in the cricketer’s career from 2013 onwards. Sreesanth got arrested on allegations of spot-fixing while featuring for the IPL’s Rajasthan Royals.
He will spend over 2 weeks at the Tihar Jail, narrowly escaping an assassination attempt while in prison. Sreesanth will later be cleared of all charges in 2015 after a Supreme Court judgment.
Suresh Raina
Raina’s partying was well-known in the cricket world before his arrest in 2020. Suresh remains one of the talented IPL players in history and featured for Team India on several occasions, amassing impressive stats along the way. He was arrested in 2020 for flouting COVID rules at a party in Mumbai.
Amit Mishra
Mishra was accused of physical assault and was arrested before his release on bail in 2015. Details from the FIR showed his accuser claimed she was abused physically at a hotel room before his arrest.
Makhaya Ntini
Ntini was arrested before he came to the limelight as one of South Africa’s top cricketers. A lady accused him of sexual assault while he was in East London, leading to a publicized case where he was initially sentenced to 6 years in prison. However, the judgment was overturned when prosecutors could not provide damning evidence against Ntini.
He went on to become one of the Proteas’ most popular cricketers with 390 Test wickets, 266 ODIs, and 6 T20Is. His career spanned over 2 decades before retiring in 2011.
