Cricket Top Ten: Scrapes with the law

Cricket is, by and large, a game of decent chaps who only occasionally fight, take drugs or murder people.  But let's have a look at the ones that have.  Have I missed any of your favourites?  Let us know in the comments.

1.  Leslie Hylton
Fast-bowler Les played six Tests for the West Indies in the 1930s, averaging a not unimpressive 26.12, before fading into first class obscurity.  He is, however, forever remembered for the nature of his death: hanged in 1955 for killing his wife, perhaps after she told him he should have tried bowling more off-cutters, but probably not.  He is the only Test player known to have been executed

2.  Roy Gilchrist
There are many words to describe West Indian Gilchrist, but "unhinged" is probably the most apt.  Gilchrist had a litany of on-field incidents: deliberately overstepping his mark and bowling beamers from 18 yards; knocking India's Kripal Singh's turban off with an overstepped bouncer; and uprooting a stump in a Lancashire League match to wallop an opponent with it being but a few.  But it was his off the field attack on his wife, branding her face with a hot iron in 1967, that sealed both his notoriety and a three-month sentence of probation

3. Navjot Singh Sidhu
Former Indian opener Sidhu had a booming post-playing career, incorporating politics in addition to plentiful TV and media work.  This all came to an abrupt end in 2006 when he was sentenced to three-years in chokey for the culpable homicide (manslaughter) of a 65-year-old man in 1988 over a parking space.   Nice.

4.  Geoffrey Boycott
Legend Boycott was arrested for attacking his then girlfriend in 1996 while in France, a claim he has denied to this day, even after two failed appeals in the French court.  Because of this he was ostracised by the mainstream media for a time, and only the diagnosis and subsequent survival of throat cancer being deemed enough to bring him back into the fold.

5.  Shivnarine Chanderpaul
What's the quiet man of Guyana doing on here I hear you ask?  Well, in 1998 he shot a policeman. Fair enough, he thought it was burglar and was subsequently let off, but he still shot a copper nonetheless.

6.  Peter Roebuck
Former bog-standard Somerset player and captain Roebuck made a few waves in his playing days, notably for not renewing the contracts of Sir Viv and Big Bird at Somerset in 1986 and hastening the exit of Ian Botham.  His greatest shame came in 2001 when he was found guilty of common assault after caning boys he was coaching in 1999; he received a suspended sentence.

7.  Runako Morton
Bit of a livewire is Runako, he is often seen chuntering away at slip or attempting (usually unsuccessfully) to carve the bowling all over the pitch.  Just be thankful that knives are not allowed in the field of play is all I can say.  The West Indian strokemaker was arrested in 2004 for stabbing his cousin in the chest during a family dispute and received a reprimand from the police.

8.  Liam Plunkett
Poor LIam will not be able to while away the time driving while his international career disappears. The Durham man is currently banned for 20 months after crashing his car pissed on the way home from a nightclub earlier this year.

9.  Ricky Ponting
Yes, even Ricky is on here.  Ponting was involved in a Sydney nightclub brawl in 1998 that landed him with an arrest and a A$5000 fine.

10.  Stephen Fleming, Matthew Hart, Dion Nash, Wasim Akram, Mushtaq Ahmed, Waqar Younis, Herschelle Gibbs, Andre Nel, Justin Kemp, Paul Adams, Roger Telemachus, Shane Warne, Maninder Singh, Ian Botham etc etc
All done for drugs of some form at one time or another.