• Leeward Islands all-rounder Warrington Phillip, who appeared in 43 first-class matches, was sentenced to life in prison in 2009 for the murder of his wife. A few months on from his last match – for Dominica in the 2006 Stanford Twenty20 tournament – Phillip was arrested after his wife’s body was found in a car with her throat cut.
• A 53-year-old who’d claimed thousands of pounds in disability payments ended up in court in 2013 after he was seen playing cricket. Stewart Lorains, a member of the Boosbeck club, had claimed the allowance from 2008, saying he was in constant pain and needed help washing, dressing and eating. Investigators from the Work and Pensions Department looked into his claims and found Lorains was active enough to be playing competitive cricket. Lorains’s barrister admitted that her client had “exaggerated the extent of his condition”. He was given a four-month suspended jail sentence.
• Bangladesh bowler Shafiuddin Ahmed, who appeared in 11 one-day internationals, was the subject of a major police hunt in 2003 after his girlfriend ended up in hospital with burns to 75 per cent of her body. The victim’s family had alleged the cricketer threw petrol over Monika Afroze Mimi and set her alight.
• Pakistan fast bowler Mohammad Sami and his family were the victims of a violent home invasion in 2005. It was reported to police that four masked bandits had burst through the doors of their home in a daylight robbery during which members of Sami’s family were held hostage: “The robbers took away bonds, defence saving certificates, American dollars and jewellery. They tied our hands behind and threatened to kill us if we made any noise. We are all shell-shocked.”
• A few days after being named in Bangladesh’s 2015 World Cup squad, Rubel Hossain was sent to jail pending a court appearance in relation to a complaint of a “false promise of marriage”. A 19-year-old woman had lodged the grievance with police claiming the fast bowler had reneged on a pledge to marry her, an offence under Bangladeshi law.
Released on bail so he could appear in the tournament, Hossain became a national hero when he took 4-53 at Adelaide to eliminate England from the World Cup in a match described as Bangladesh’s greatest international victory. A few hours after the win, the woman’s lawyer withdrew his services whereupon she announced she was dropping the charge.
• On the same night that Victorian coach David Hookes was fatally assaulted by a bouncer outside a Melbourne nightspot in 2004, Matt Gourlay, a bouncer himself, was hit with an autographed Bushrangers cricket bat. Gourlay and Hookes were both taken to the same hospital and spent time together in neighbouring cubicles in the emergency department. The bat used in the attack against Gourlay had been signed by all of the Victorian players who had triumphed over South Australia that fateful day in a limited-over match at the MCG.
• In 2005, a 32-year-old cricketer was charged with assaulting an opposition bowler half his age following his dismissal in a village cricket match in England. Michael Butt, who was playing for the Elsworth club, was punishing the bowling of the much younger Joshua Fay before he was clean-bowled. According to Butt, the youngster had called him a “tosser” upon his dismissal, whereupon he knocked him to the ground with his bat, punching him repeatedly. In court, Butt admitted his guilt to a charge of assault and was sentenced to 175 hours of community service.
• Despite his property having electric fencing and security gates, former South African bowler Pat Symcox was threatened by an armed intruder inside his house in 2011. Symcox said a number of items, including his laptop, had been stolen: “I got up to go to the toilet and as I came back into the room, I came face to face with the intruder, who was holding my gun. There must have been at least two robbers in the house, as it appears they were passing stuff out through the window.”
• A British police officer had to interrupt his innings in a club match in 1991 to make an arrest. During his knock for the Gateshead Fell XI, PC Brian Arkle noticed an intruder in the club pavilion and ran from the field to investigate. After arresting the man, Arkle returned to the crease, going on to score a match-winning maiden century.
• A Sri Lankan male escort was handed a one-month suspended jail sentence in 2012 after breaking into the hotel rooms of Australian cricketers during the World Twenty20 tournament. The 21-year-old had entered the rooms of two players, offering sexual services.
• Two players from the Western Province Cricket Club were kidnapped at gunpoint after a match in Cape Town in 2003/04 and forced to fund a shopping spree. The pair was held captive for two days. Three men received jail sentences of between 16 and 20 years.
• A former Victorian batsman was sentenced to 18 months’ jail in 2007 following a hit-and-run incident involving a cyclist. David Plumpton, who appeared in two limited-over matches in 2002/03, pleaded guilty to the offence that resulted in the death of a 32-year-old in Melbourne in 2005. The Victorian County Court was told that Plumpton had fallen asleep at the wheel of his vehicle when the accident occurred, fleeing the scene at high speed and dumping his car.
• A streaker who invaded the Gabba cricket ground in 2008 scoffed at suggestions that he might sue all-rounder Andrew Symonds who’d flattened him with a shoulder charge. Robert Ogilvie’s indiscretion cost him $1,500 in the Brisbane Magistrates Court, but said he wasn’t too fussed about the bone-crunching hit: “It was great actually, it was just like playing football. You only live once, don’t you?”
• Two West Indian cricketers were arrested midway through a first-class match at Port-of-Spain in 2010/11 and locked up at a local police station. The Leeward Islands’ Tonito Willett, who had scored 25 and taken 2-23, and Runako Morton, who had made seven for Trinidad at Queen’s Park Oval, were arrested on drugs charges and took no further part in the match.
• While driving through the outskirts of Islamabad in 2004, former Pakistan captain Imran Khan was robbed by a group of men carrying semi-automatic weapons. Imran handed over an amount of cash, credit cards and mobile phone.
• Gunmen abducted the father of Afghanistan’s cricket captain in 2013. Mohammad Nabi, who took to the game at the age of 28 while living in a refugee camp in Pakistan, had become his country’s captain just a few months before the kidnapping.
• Former Indian captain Mansur Ali Khan was arrested in 2005 on suspicion of poaching an endangered species. He was one of eight people detained by police in Haryana after the carcass of an antelope, along with two guns and ammunition, was allegedly found in the boot of his car.
• Jacob Martin, who appeared in ten one-day internationals for India, was arrested in 2011 on charges of running an illegal immigration racket. Police had alleged that Martin had taken a number of men to England in 2004 as part of a bogus cricket team. In the same year – 2004 – Martin was arrested on a charge of breaking Gujarat’s prohibition laws. The captain of the Baroda Ranji Trophy team, Martin was released on bail shortly after his arrest: “I am innocent. I had gone to a friend’s funeral. I was sitting in a small room with three other friends. We were waiting for the funeral procession to start, when the police raided the room, found a liquor bottle and we were arrested. I told the police that I don’t drink, but to no avail.”
• In 1996, police in the Indian state of Punjab claimed to have foiled an attempted kidnapping of a former national Test captain. Authorities said that Kashmiri militants had planned to abduct Kapil Dev in a trade-off for one of their own in prison.
• A teenage boy was sentenced to 15 years’ prison in 2006 after he was found guilty of murdering a young girl following a game of cricket. Ten-year-old Lauren Pilkington-Smith had been playing cricket with a friend close to her home in a town near Manchester, when 18-year-old Kieron Smith joined in. The girl’s battered body was found later the same night.
• An England cricket supporter was ordered by a judge to make a public apology during a Test match in South Africa in 2005 after being charged with scrawling racist graffiti on seats at the Newlands ground in Cape Town. The cricket ground authorities resisted the judge’s order, saying it could “sour the game”. Matthew Weller, from Wolverhampton, wrote an apology instead, after he was caught using a pen to make racist slogans and swastikas on a number of seats at the ground: “I am extremely sorry for any offence caused to the staff and patrons of the ground who may have witnessed the act, or those involved in the cleaning operation. I wholly regret my actions, which were totally out of character and promise that I shall never again act in this manner.”
• A club cricket match in England was interrupted in 2002 when a man began firing an air gun at the players, hitting one in the leg. Taplow bowler Mike Bradley was celebrating the taking of a wicket in the Chiltern League match against Amersham when he was struck: “There was a whistling noise and it was like a real hard smack on the leg. It was quite a shock.” The offender was later arrested and charged with intent to endanger life.
• While on bail on charges of arson in 2007, Zimbabwe batsman Mark Vermeulen was allowed to play club cricket, scoring a century in a match for Old Hararians. Charged with setting fire to the Zimbabwe Cricket Academy and the Harare Sports Club, Vermeulen hit 118 off 107 balls in a match against Uprising.
Vermeulen was later cleared of the charges after pleading not guilty on the grounds of diminished responsibility: “[The trial] was a long process and I learned a lot and I think I’m now a better person. I’ve been taking my medication. What happened was very unfortunate but I wasn’t aware just how much I wasn’t in control.”
He made his way back into the national team in 2009, and in his first one-day international in five years hit 92 opening the batting against Bangladesh at Bulawayo.
• An assault case mounted against former Zimbabwe captain Tatenda Taibu was thrown out of court in 2009 with the judge describing the prosecution’s case as unreliable. Taibu had been charged with attacking a Zimbabwe Cricket employee in Harare after claiming he was owed money by the board. The magistrate ruled the court was unable to determine how the alleged assault could have occurred: “Either this case was fabricated or the testimony of the witnesses is grossly exaggerated to the extent of making it unbelievable. The accused is accordingly found not guilty and acquitted.”
• The father of an England wicketkeeper was jailed for 18 months in 2009 after being found guilty of a charge of dangerous driving causing death. In 2007, Ken Foster, the father of Essex’s James Foster, had ploughed head-on into a motorcyclist on a road in Buckhurst Hill.
• A former Queensland cricketer jailed for sex offences against children was the victim of a bashing in Canberra’s prison in 2013. Ian King, who appeared in eight first-class matches as a fast bowler, was admitted to hospital where he underwent emergency surgery losing an eye.
• A club cricketer who played in the English Ribblesdale League competition was sent to jail by a former first-class cricketer in 2007 on a charge of raping a 14-year-old girl. The judge, Edward Slinger – who made one appearance in first-class cricket for MCC against Oxford University in 1967 – imposed a non-parole period of five and a half years on the 40-year-old Ajmal Mohammad. While out on bail, it was reported that Ajmal had played for Blackburn Northerns in the Ribblesdale League while wearing an electronic tag attached to his ankle.
• Two teenage brothers on their way to play cricket in the Pakistan province of Punjab in 2010 were beaten to death by an angry mob after mistaking them for criminals. The two boys were then hung from a pole in an incident that sparked worldwide condemnation.
• A one-day international cricketer was hospitalised in 2010 after being attacked with a machete. Bermuda fast bowler George O’Brien – who made his ODI debut in 2006 – sustained an injury to his arm that required minor surgery.
• One of the most aggressive fast bowlers produced by South Africa in its isolation years was later sentenced to four years in jail. Garth Le Roux, who collected 838 first-class wickets, and his accountant were imprisoned on tax fraud charges.
• A former Victorian batsman ended up in hospital in Melbourne in 2005 after he fell over while in pursuit of a group of would-be car thieves. Russell Sincock, who played in two first-class matches in 1968/69, received cuts and bruises to various parts of his body after falling to the ground while chasing four teenagers near his home: “My mates think it’s a great joke, especially that I was starkers through the entire episode. There had been a couple of car break-ins in the street and the moment I heard a thud on the car, I knew someone was trying to get into mine. Heaven knows what they thought of a 200lb gorilla suddenly appearing at the front door, but they took off at a million miles an hour and with me after them, but all to no avail.”
• A former England batsman attracted a criminal record and a hefty fine in 2013 after appearing in court charged with harassing his former wife. Defending Kim Barnett – who appeared in four Tests in the 1980s – David Green said his client had found his marriage break-up difficult: “We have two incidents on two separate days which are in my submission quite bizarre, but also in some ways quite childish.” The court heard Barnett had stuck a picture of his ex-wife next to a picture of a witch in his car window, with the words “Which is Witch?”
• A 91-year-old former wicketkeeper came to the defence of a traffic warden in 2013 who’d been attacked by a motorist. Rupert Webb, who appeared in 256 first-class matches between 1948 and 1960, confronted the 60-year-old driver who had punched the warden in a street in Worthing: “I had a firm grip on my walking stick and I was about to give the attacker a jolly good clout. Fortunately, at that moment, a police car came round the corner and the man was arrested and taken away.”
• After captaining Derbyshire in the 1870s, Samuel Richardson moved to Spain having stolen £1,000 of the club’s money. He absconded with the loot when he was in the trusted position of assistant secretary, and lived in Spain under a different name until his death, at the age of 93, in 1938.
• An arrest warrant was issued for the Indian Test captain M.S. Dhoni in 2014 after failing to appear in court following three summonses. A member of a right-wing political group filed a case against the then-captain accusing him of hurting religious sentiments after a picture of Dhoni as the Hindu god Vishnu appeared on the front cover of an Indian business magazine (pictured).
• During the Leicestershire-Nottinghamshire County Championship match in 1988, Kevin Lyons turned up one day to umpire in pinstriped trousers. His car containing his umpiring clothes had been stolen the night before.
• The son of a former Australian Test cricketer was placed on Interpol’s watch list in 2014 accused of fraud and forgery in Afghanistan. Peter McCosker – whose father Rick appeared in 25 Tests – was the operator of Compass Integrated Security Solutions, a company named by a US Senate committee inquiry in 2010 as undermining the international war effort in Afghanistan.