IPL: 5 Players who were banned from the tournament

The Indian Premier League has certainly seen some of the most interesting as well as bizarre incidents. Some of those weird incidents eventually led to the players being banned from the tournament for some time. Let us take a look at five players who were banned from the tournament.

1. Luke Pomersbach

The Australian cricket player caused a huge stir in the lucrative league after he was accused of pursuing a woman and her fiancé from the United States, following her to a hotel room, and attempting to harass her. The batter was shown in the Delhi High Court after the incident at Hotel Maurya, where he was temporarily released. 

Pomersbach was forced to give up his passport, but the charges were dismissed and the issue was resolved out of court. But his team, Royal Challengers Bangalore, suspended him for the remainder of the competition.

2. Mohammad Asif

After being acquired by the Delhi Daredevils team to play alongside veteran Glenn McGrath, Mohammad Asif proved to be a valuable addition. The former fast bowler for Pakistan was banned after testing positive for nandrolone, a prohibited substance. 

A statement from the IPL's three-member drugs tribunal read, "Mohammad Asif was found guilty by the IPL Drug Tribunal insofar as a prohibited substance, namely Nandrolone, was found in the urine sample extracted from the player during the support period and the match played on May 30th, 2008 between the Delhi Daredevils and the Rajasthan Royals at Mumbai."

3. David Warner

Having guided the SunRisers Hyderabad to the championship in 2016 and the playoffs the following year, David Warner is among the best captains in the IPL. Steve Smith received the same punishment as the southpaw, who was exposed as the architect behind the ball-tampering scandal involving Australia and South Africa.

He was banned from international cricket for a year by Cricket Australia, and as a result, the IPL declined to hire him. Warner was consequently unable to play for the SunRisers Hyderabad in 2018, and Kane Williamson assumed leadership. 

4. Pravin Tambe

Pravin Tambe violated the game's conventional logic when he was selected by the Rajasthan Royals in 2013 at the age of 42. In 2014, the leg-spinner took 15 wickets for Rajasthan. Following that, he took 28 and 33 wickets for the Sunrisers Hyderabad and Gujarat Lions, respectively.

But for an odd reason, BCCI banned him from playing in 2019. Following his retirement from the sport, the veteran made an appearance in the T10 league in 2018. Nevertheless, he entered the IPL auction and came out of retirement to participate in the Mumbai T20 League. Since the BCCI was unaware of his decision to withdraw from retirement and play in T10, Tambe was disqualified from the tournament. 

5. Harbhajan Singh

Even though the first IPL season was a huge success, the event suffered a minor setback when the Slapgate incident surfaced. It was discovered that Harbhajan had smacked Sreesanth, the pace spearhead for KXIP. After taking a few wickets in a winning effort, Sreesanth broke down in tears.

It turned out that a beaming Sreesanth approached Harbhajan and wished him "hard luck." At that moment, the skipper of the Mumbai Indians lost his temper and struck the Kerala speedster in the eye. After that event, the off-spinner was temporarily suspended and subsequently banned for the remainder of the season. Additionally, Harbhajan was later barred from five ODIs.

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