Cricket is known as the gentleman's game, but the sport has come a long way, and there have been instances when the spirit of the game has been challenged. One does not have to go too far. The ongoing Test series between India and Australia has provided a few infamous moments too.
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The Australian players, at times, have crossed the line with their on-field behaviour. Be it their mocking of Virat Kohli's shoulder injury or Steve Smith looking at the dressing room for help with the DRS, their actions have been caught on tape. However, this should not come as a huge surprise with the Aussies being infamous for such actions.
Some Australian players have got themselves into controversies for their bad behaviour, and here are a few of them, who gradually became the bad boy of world cricket.
Andrew Symonds
The Australian all-rounder made it a habit, during his playing days, to get involved in verbal duels. Symonds crossed the line in India's tour of Australian in 2008, when he was involved in an ugly altercation with Harbhajan Singh, which later came to be known as the 'monkeygate'.
Symonds did not have much respect towards his teammates too, as was witnessed when he skipped a team meeting in Bangladesh, and went fishing instead.
Dennis Lillee
The Australian may be one of the best fast bowlers of all-time, but his actions caught some unwanted attention during his playing days. He was involved in one of the most shameful behaviour on a cricket field when he and Javed Miandad nearly came to blows in a cricket match in the 1980s. Forget respecting his fellow players, he did not show any respect towards the game, which gave him his bread and butter.
Lillee, an express pacer, once bowled off-spin during an Ashes Test in 1975, when umpire Dickie Bird refused to change the ball.
Shane Warne
No doubt, Shane Warne is the best leg-spinner the world has ever seen, but he wasn't the most likeable character on the field. His marriage with Simone hit rock-botton after he allegedly sent erotic messages to British nurse, Donna Wright. It was for the same that Warne was stripped of his vice-captaincy duties as well. This is just one of the many sex controversies, which bagged the limelight during his career.
Just days ahead of the ICC World Cup 2003, the spinner was banned for 12 months, after he tested positive for a banned drug.
Even his on-field antics landed him in trouble, including his verbal duel with Marlon Samuels in the Big Bash League 2012-13.
David Warner
What is wrong with Australian cricketers? They seem to do what they like. Warner once skipped his domestic cricket match so that he could go and watch a horse race. Warner seems to have his own set of rules as he was also caught up with England cricketer Joe Root, with the former punching the latter in a bar, while the 2013 Ashes was going on.
Ricky Ponting
The Australians love their beer. It is a well-known fact, and one also knows that Ponting got into controversies for his drinking problem more than once. Even after drinking, he has got into fights as well, and everyone remembers his photograph with a black eye after picking up a fight in Sydney, 1999. In another instance, the Australian was also thrown out of a Kolkata nightclub in 1998 after his misbehaviour with Indian women at the venue.
