5 Cricketers who were banned for weird reasons

Cricket is full of high drama, both on and off the pitch. While most suspensions are the result of some serious offence, there are a few bans that have resulted in strange situations. All these examples have one thing in common: cricket's code of conduct contains much more than on-field anti-corruption or sportsmanship. From Victorian-era drinking to pitch-guarding in the modern age, even the most outlandish late calls can put a player out.

Each of these suspensions separates the expectation that cricket players are not just bound by the rules, but also by unspoken codes of decency. For too much aggression, outlandish ball-tampering schemes, priorities off the field or off-field dispositions, these suspensions remind us that in cricket, as in life, the smallest misstep can have an unexpected price.

The following are five cricketers whose leave of absence from the sport was granted for utterly weird reasons.

1. Kapil Dev 

In the 1984–85 Test series against England, India needed solid batting to rescue a match. When Kapil Dev came in at a vulnerable 90‑odd for 3, one hoped for stoic defence. But he played his shots, scoring a boundary off one shot and walking off on the next delivery. 

Team management took so much umbrage at his being "reckless" that they suspended him for one match. It's a rare example of a player being suspended not for indiscipline but for playing too aggressively in Test cricket.

2. Harbhajan Singh

Off-spinner Harbhajan Singh made two demerit points during India's tour of New Zealand in 2010 for continually stepping onto the covered part of the pitch while bowling, an offence which has usually been reserved for hard‑running fast bowlers. 

When he received two more points three months later, he had reached the ceiling and had to sit out of a Twenty20 International. It does not often happen to a spinner, whose front-foot landing has little or no effect on the surface, to be suspended for "damage to the pitch," but the rules are not exempting pace.

3. Andrew Symonds 

In 2008, the Australian selectors sent one of their most feared all‑rounders, not because he was out of form or injured, but because he had missed a team meeting to take a private fishing trip. In 2008, for an ODI series with Bangladesh, unaware of the team meeting, he missed it and instead decided to go fishing. 

He was given a month to demonstrate his commitment to Australian cricket. There was a lot of doubt regarding his future after that occurrence. However, he was able to keep playing for Australia until 2009. This sent a strong message that it does not matter how important a player it might be, nobody was bigger than the game.

4. Bobby Peel

In 1897, Yorkshire left-arm bowler Bobby Peel came back drunk for a county match, so drunk that he is said to have bowled a ball wildly off-line and could not field at all. Club captain Lord Hawke immediately suspended him for the rest of the season, effectively ending Peel's first-class career. 

A hundred years later, the tale of him supposedly urinating on the pitch (though probably a journalist's fabrication) is one of the game's strangest off-field episodes.

5. Shoaib Akhtar 

Temper got the better of Pakistan's camp during the first T20 World Cup in 2007 when an enraged dressing-room altercation led Shoaib Akhtar to physically assault teammate Shahid Afridi with his bat. 

Though his intended target was reportedly Afridi, he ended up hitting Mohammad Asif by accident. The PCB officials sent him packing immediately and handed him a ban, citing unacceptable conduct. The "Rawalpindi Express" later explained that Afridi had made very personal jibes, but the incident is infamous for its sheer ridiculousness and the weapon of choice.

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