Ranking top 10 controversial cricketers

8. Herschelle Gibbs

One of the best batsmen & fielders South African cricket has ever produced, Herschelle Gibbs was the architect of the highest run ODI chase in the history of cricket. As good & consistent he was with the bat and in the field, he was perhaps the most consistent Protea to be part of controversies which ruined some of his crucial days in cricket as well as his dream of becoming the best South African batsman ever.

In the year 2000, he was involved in the most infamous match-fixing scandal in cricket history. When Bookies and then-captain Hansie Cronje approached him to arrange a match, he took money if he could score less than 20 points. Despite scoring 74, he was suspended for six months and refused to return to India for the next six years for fear of being arrested by the authorities.

He was penalized by the CSA in 2001, along with several other colleagues, for smoking marijuana while on tour in the West Indies. Despite being a cape-colored player himself, Gibbs was accused of making racial remarks intended against Pakistani players and fans and earned a three-game suspension – one in each of the game’s three formats. Later, he apologized and added that the remarks were for the ears only of his team-mates in his proximity, and were directed in general terms at that section of the crowd that had verbally abused Paul Harris.