The Lawyer’s Briefs: Eleven cricketers on the wrong side of the law

Before this year’s cricket World Cup concludes, a number of heroes will be born, and legends will be made. However, there is more to this gentleman’s game than meets the eye. In this edition of the Lawyer’s Briefs, we bring to you eleven cricketers who may not quite have been gentlemen off the field..1. Mark Vermeulen.Alleged crime: Arson.Verdict: Acquittal with 12-month ban.The Zimbabwean opening batsman had a penchant for destruction, possibly as a result of a potentially career-ending blow to head he received from an Irfan Pathan bouncer. In 2006, miffed at not being selected for the national squad, Vermeulen attempted to set fire to the Harare Sports Club. Luckily, no substantial harm was caused. If that wasn’t enough, he tried the same thing at the national academy the very next day, causing far more damage. He was subsequently arrested and charged with arson, before his lawyer got him acquitted. However, he received a 12-month ban, with the court citing his previous indiscretions like flinging a ball at a spectator who was mocking him..Scroll down for more or watch the timeline below..2. Navjot Singh Sidhu .Alleged crime: S. 304 IPC (Culpable Homicide).Verdict: High Court conviction stayed.Better known for his criminally atrocious sense of humour, the former Indian opener was convicted for culpable homicide by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 2006. According to court records, Sidhu allegedly pulled a man out of his car and beat him to death in a fit of road rage with the help of an accomplice..Harish Salve, appearing for Sidhu, convinced the Supreme Court to stay the conviction, largely relying on the fact that the deceased had a heart condition at the time. As a result, the apex court stayed the conviction and allowed Sidhu to contest the Lok Sabha elections. Ever since, the self-proclaimed poet has been torturing Indian audiences with Sidhuisms like, “It’s very difficult to kill a man who is hell bent upon committing suicide.” Poetic justice indeed..3. Jacob Martin.Alleged crime: Sections 420/468/471, IPC (Cheating, forgery).Verdict: Bail denied, case status unknown.This Baroda batsman’s off-field antics were more prominent than his fairly lacklustre international career. In 2010, he was charged with cheating by a trial court in Delhi. Martin had sent a young boy to England with the promise of selecting him to play for a fictitious cricket team in exchange for money. The poor kid was caught by the UK Immigration Department for having a counterfeit home stamp, provided, of course, by Martin and his cronies. If that wasn’t enough, he went absconding for months and the Delhi Police announced a reward of Rs. 25,000 for information on his whereabouts. He finally resurfaced to apply for anticipatory bail in the Delhi High Court, which was duly denied..4. Leslie Hylton.Alleged Crime: Murder.Verdict: Convicted, sentenced to death.This one is straight out of a movie. Possibly the only cricketer to ever be hanged, Leslie Hylton was a West Indian fast bowler who shot his wife dead after he found out about her extra-marital affair. Defying their differences in social standing, the couple got married in 1942. However, ten years later, things turned sour when Hylton received an anonymous letter with explicit details of his wife’s infidelity. When he confronted her, she came clean and pledged her love for the other man, which prompted Hylton to grab a nearby gun and shoot her dead..One of Hylton’s lawyers, Noel Nethersole happened to be a former captain of the Jamaican cricket team. He tried arguing that the death was an accident, as Hylton was trying to shoot himself and missed. However, the jury refused to buy this argument; evidently the autopsy revealed seven bullets in Mrs. Hylton’s body. Hylton was hanged for murder in 1955..5. Chris Lewis.Crime: Drug smuggling.Verdict: Guilty, 13-year prison sentence.Once touted as the next Ian Botham, this England all-rounder was sentenced to 13 years in prison for attempting to smuggle £140,000 worth of cocaine into Britain from the West Indies. He was carrying tins of “fruit juice” containing the drug dissolved in a liquid when the authorities caught him at the airport. Known for his enviable physique, Lewis could never really apply his mind, evident from the fact that he once passed out from sunstroke and missed an entire test match after he shaved his head and refused to wear a hat in the punishing Caribbean sun..6. Mohammad Asif.Crime: Conspiracy to cheat.Punishment: 1-year prison sentence, 7-yr cricket ban.A potent swing bowler, Mohammad Asif never quite exhibited the immaculate control he had over a cricket ball in his life off the field. His troubles began in 2006, when he and fellow pacer Shoaib Akhtar were suspended by the Pakistan cricket Board after testing positive for a banned substance, Nandrolone. He was also banned from the IPL for the same reason in 2009. In 2011, a UK court sentenced him to a year in prison after he was found guilty of conspiracy to cheat by plotting with teammates Salman Butt and Mohammad Amir to deliberately bowl no-balls during a test match against England. A couple of years ago, he was released after completing half the term, but is still serving the seven-year ban from cricket imposed by an ICC Tribunal..7. Chris Cairns .Crime: Perjury.Verdict: Pending trial.The dashing Kiwi all-rounder was accused of match-fixing by former IPL Chairman Lalit Modi on Twitter in 2010. Cairns proceeded to sue Modi for libel in UK’s first ever Twitter libel case. Since Modi failed to produce any valid evidence to substantiate his claims, the court found him guilty of libel and ordered him to pay £90,000 in damages to the former New Zealand captain. Another interesting point in the case was that Cairns had a ‘no win, no fee’ agreement with his lawyers..Just when he thought he would walk away scot-free, UK prosecution authorities in 2014 charged him with perjury for giving false testimony during the Modi libel case. Considering the fact that many witnesses are current players with busy tour schedules, the next date of hearing is fixed for October 5 of this year..8. Rubel Hossain .Alleged Crime: Rape.Verdict: Charges dropped.Newly-turned national hero, Bangladesh’s Rubel Hossain was charged with rape by his girlfriend Naznin Akhtar Happy. In January this year, he was sent to jail by a Dhaka court in a case filed under the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act. After spending three days in jail, he was allowed to go free to train for the World Cup and has been excused from attending the proceedings in court. Recently, Happy agreed to drop the charges..9. S. Sreesanth.Alleged crime: Match fixing.Verdict: Decision pending.The temperamental Kerala paceman was charged in the IPL spot fixing controversy and spent almost a month in Tihar jail in May 2013. Three months after he was released on bail, the BCCI imposed a life ban for his involvement in the incident. To make matters worse, the Delhi Police brought charges under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act against him. Though the Delhi High Court ordered that there was no case against him under the Act, the Supreme Court in November 2013 stayed the order..10. Steve Randell.Crime: Sexual assault on minors.Verdict: 4 year imprisonment; released after 2 years and 9 months.This little-known former Australian cricketer and umpire was convicted in 1999 on 15 counts of indecently assaulting nine minors while teaching at a Catholic primary school between 1981 and 1982. One of the victims came forward and revealed the vile acts committed by the Tasmanian after 15 long years, during which Randell had become one of the most respected umpires on the cricketing circuit. He was later released on parole after serving 2 years and 9 months of his 4 year sentence..11. Terry Jenner .Crime: Theft.Verdict: Six and a half years imprisonment, released after 18 months.The Aussie spin guru was better known as the coach who brought Shane Warne to the cricketing world. A former test cricketer himself, Jenner was plagued by a gambling addiction. In 1988, he was sentenced to six-and-a-half years’ imprisonment for stealing money from his employer to pay off gambling debts. He was released after one and a half years, after which he became a coach at the Australian Cricket Academy, where he met Warne. The rest, as they say, is history.