The Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) is starting between India and Australia from 9 February. Both the teams will clash in a four-Test series. The first Test will be played at the Vidarbha Cricket Stadium in Nagpur. The Indian team led by Rohit Sharma and the Australian team led by Pat Cummins are busy preparing. The Kangaroo team has come to India for the first time since 2017 to play Test. There is a fierce rivalry between India and Australia, due to which many star players have emerged. However, many controversies have also come up in the trophy, due to which there was a lot of uproar in India and Australia. Let us tell you about the three biggest controversies of BGT.

homeworkgate

Australia faced a 4–0 defeat in the Test series against India in 2012–13. Australia lost the second match of the series played at Hyderabad ground within four days. After losing the match, then Australia coach Mickey Arthur asked the Kangaroo players to submit a list of three things they could improve upon. All the players except Shane Watson, Mitchell Johnson, Usman Khawaja and James Pattinson submitted the list.

Four players disobeyed the coach’s order, due to which they were suspended i.e. they were not eligible to play in the next test. The media dubbed the issue ‘Homeworkgate’. There was a big uproar in the Australian cricket world on this matter. However, Watson returned in the Fourth Test and took charge of the side in the keen presence of Michael Clarke. Arthur was dropped before Australia’s next series. Darren Lehmann became the coach in his place.

monkeygate scandal

The ‘Monkeygate’ scandal has been the talk of the town between cricket fans in India and Australia. In fact, during the Sydney Test in 2007-08, Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh and former Australia veteran Andrew Symonds had a spat. Subsequently, Symonds alleged a racial remark. Symonds said that Harbhajan called him ‘monkey’. Whereas, Harbhajan denied the allegation. This controversy heated up so much that there was talk of the Indian team leaving the tour of Australia and returning. However, the tour of India continued. Legendary batsman Sachin Tendulkar gave an important testimony in this dispute, after which the matter was put to rest.

crease tampering

There was a lot of controversy over Australia’s legendary cricketer Steve Smith’s act of tampering with the crease mark in the 2020-21 series. In fact, Smith tried to erase the mark placed on Rishabh Pant’s crease during the fifth day of the Sydney Test. His act was caught on camera. The video showed Smith erasing the marks during the dricks break. At the same time, Smith then reacted to this and said that he was doing this to understand and practice some things. He said, “I often do this in matches to understand where we are bowling and how the batsmen are facing it. I have a habit of making marks there.