Cricket's fatal attraction: Women clean bowl IPL

In cricketing terms, it’s the macho version of the game.

One that is marked by the number of sixes - the maximum score possible off a single strike.

Yet, it is the Indian Premier League (IPL) that finds itself being hit for a six and there are no macho men involved. It's the women who have taken centrestage - off the field, of course! 

The off-field IPL controversies have been more than entertaining, but have also been damaging to the game.

An Indian-American woman sent Royal Challengers Bangalore's Aussie player Luke Pomersbach straight to prison.

Molestation allegation

The biggest buzz was created by the news of Pomersbach being arrested for allegedly molesting a woman and beating up her fiancée at a Delhi five-star hotel on May 17.

The Australian allegedly misbehaved with the woman after a drinking session in her room. When the woman's fiancé intervened, Pomersbach attacked the man and had to be taken to a hospital.

Delhi Police officials claim the molestation charges made by the American woman against the Pune Warriors player Luke Pomersbach are true and they have sufficient proof to book him.

Click: Read exact words of Shah Rukh's brawl with officials

The Australian cricketer was granted bail on Saturday on a personal bond of Rs30,000 with two sureties and asked to surrender his passport and not leave the country without permission.

That’s not all. The victim also served a legal notice to RCB director Sidhartha Mallya for his alleged tweets maligning her character.

Mallya tweeted: "The girl who is accusing Luke is saying he hit her 'fiance'...what a load of ****** shit. She was all over me last night and asked for me bbm pin, so if he was her fiance she wasn't exactly behaving like a future wife".

The victim has demanded an apology from Mallya. So will Sidhartha Mallya apologise and what awaits Luke Pomersbach?

Sunanda Pushkar and Shashi Tharoor

Sunanda Pushkar and her stake in the Kochi IPL team saw former Union Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor lose his job.

Tharoor got into serious hot water after former IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi revealed that Tharoor's (then) friend Sunanda Pushkar (now wife) had equity stakes in Rendezvous Sports World (RSW), heading the consortium that owns the Kochi team.

Read: Shah Rukh banned from Mumbai stadium for 5 years

It was later disclosed that Pushkar got sweat equity of the value of Rs 70 crore, following which the political parties had started gunning for Tharoor's removal on the ground that he had misused office for pecuniary gain.

Tharoor was in the eye of storm while Pushkar accused the media of ignoring her professional background and international business experience and focusing only on her personal life.

IPL post-match parties

The much publicised IPL post-match parties or IPL nights were premium ticketed events where a rich man with enough money to spare could shake a leg with his/her favourite cricketer and Bollywood star.

All was well till a certain South African cheerleader`s tell-all blog revealed the other side of the party in 2011.

Click to read Azad begins hunger strike to scrap IPL

Gabriella Pasqualotto described cheerleaders as ‘walking porn` and revealed the "flirtatious" and "inappropriate" behaviour of the cricketers, naming a few of them as well in her blog.

The 22-year-old was sent home quickly due to privacy concerns. She, however, termed her sacking as being a `joke` saying everything her blog said was already known.

Some even suggested that some players' underperformance were in part due to the late-night events. After the suspension of Lalit Modi, the new commissioner, Chirayu Amin, scrapped the parties altogether.

Raging Preity Zinta

Known to be a chirpy, happy-go-lucky girl, with her trademark dimples, Preity Zinta was recently seen like a raging bull.

A visibly agitated Zinta reacted vigorously during her team's (Kings XI Punjab) match against Kolkata KNight Riders when Shaun Marsh was dismissed.

Marsh was ruled out in a controversial manner in the 14th over. The left-hander edged a Brett Lee delivery to Kolkata wicketkeeper Manvinder Bisla, who claimed that he had taken the catch cleanly even though TV replays suggested that it was a doubtful decision.

It took captain Adam Gilchrist's intervention to calm Preity down.

Rave party with drugs and ladies

Two Indian Premier League (IPL) players were questioned after Mumbai Police busted a rave party and detained about 100 people late Sunday.

Rahul Sharma of India and Wayne Parnell of South Africa, who play in the IPL for Pune Warriors, were questioned by police after the rave party was busted in Juhu in northwest Mumbai.

Around 58 boys and 38 girls were detained and taken to a hospital for blood and urine check-up.

Police have seized around 110 grams of cocaine and over 100 grams of other restricted drugs from the party.

Even though no arrests have been made yet, police have released cricketers on bonds.

This season of IPL 2012 is not over yet and we hope with the play-offs starting we will get entertained only through cricket and not controversy.

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