Deepti Sharma’s run-out, AIFF suspension to Ronaldo’s explosive interview, biggest controversies of 2022

Any athlete participating in high-pressure games and tournaments would have a high level of aggression and the heat of the moment often catches fire inside them.

And it is not unusual to see tempers flare up on and off the field every now and then. What adds fuel to the fire is the following and attention the elite athletes amongst top sports attract.

Hence, it would not be wrong to say that sports and controversies go hand-in-hand. There are also off-field factors that have an impact and create a ruckus to disturb the sanctity of the sport.

The year 2022 has been no different as we saw some eye-catching but disheartening controversies.

The English cricketing fraternity caught up the heat when Deepti Sharma ran Charlie Dean out at the non-striker’s end.

Similarly, the F1 fans were caught off guard when Max Verstappen denied Sergio Perez to get ahead of him at the Brazilian Grand Prix and when Lewis Hamilton took to Twitter and raised his voice against racism.

We shall not miss out on Cristiano Ronaldo’s explosive interview that saw him parting ways with Manchester United.

We take a look at some of the most intriguing controversies of 2022 –

Deepti Sharma’s run out at the non-striker’s end

One of the most talked about events in the cricketing world in the current year and something that will again catch fire with a small burning flake, Deepti Sharma’s run-out of Charlie Dean at the non-striker’s end was perfect blockbuster stuff.

Little would Deepti have thought while enacting the run-out that it would be blown so much out of proportion. The English women’s team, players from the men’s team, and several erstwhile players could not accept the fact that an Indian player had done this in their own backyard.

The run-out, though absolutely legal, was termed to be against the spirit of cricket. They remained intact in their judgment of the event even after it was confirmed that Dean was notorious and left her crease early on 72 instances when she was at the non-striker’s end. The run-out was inevitable.

Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur did defend her player and rightly so. Veteran commentator Harsha Bhogle as well spoke about cultural etiquette and entered into a heated Twitter argument with Ben Stokes.

There was too much noise around it and ultimately, the protectors of the cricketing laws, MCC had to make a statement stating that the non-striker should stay in the crease.

Max Verstappen vs Sergio Perez

In a rare instance, F1 became a race of words instead of a race of cars after Max Verstappen did not allow his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez to go ahead of him on the final lap of the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Red Bull asked Verstappen to pull over and give Perez the sixth place. The latter was in a fight with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc for the second spot in the final F1 standings. Perez finishing on sixth would give him a two-point advantage over Leclerc.

But Verstappen’s steadfast refusal didn’t help him.

The radio conversation made things more intense.

“I told you already last time. Don’t ask that again to me. Are we clear about that? I gave my reasons and I stand by it,” Verstappen was heard saying after his race engineer repeatedly asked him to let Perez overtake him.

Perez was subsequently heard on the radio saying, “He showed who he really was.”

Interestingly, Perez had helped Verstappen multiple times on previous instances and proved to be running interference for other racers to let Verstappen win races.

However, the dispute seemed to have been resolved after a week at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix when the Red Bull racers locked the front row of the grid for the race.

FIFA’s suspension on AIFF

While most of the heated controversies take place on the field alongside the sporting action, this particular saga was a series of events alike a daily soap that went on for months outside the field but had a serious impact on the field.

The All India Football Federation (AIFF) had been run by officials that were deemed to be unfit to run the organization and it was also termed to have an undue influence.

The elections for a new governing panel for FIFA were due in December 2020, but then administrators did not take necessary action towards it. The Supreme Court of India, as a result, appointed a three-member Committee of Administrators (CoA) and forced out the then President Praful Patel.

The FIFA doesn’t allow legal or political influence and since the AIFF took its own time in making the things right, they were banned by the international regulator in August 2022.

The bigger threat was India missing out on the hosting rights of FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup. However, AIFF’s membership was restored after they conducted elections with a due process and new officials were elected to position.

Ronaldo’s explosive interview

Before entering the FIFA World Cup 2022, Ronaldo set the footballing world on fire with his explosive interview with Piers Morgan. The five-time winner of the Ballon d’Or, who has had a frustrating season at Manchester United doing regular bench duty, startled the world with a series of videos in which he took aim at the Manchester United board, manager Erik ten Hag, and former players like Wayne Rooney.

Ronaldo asserted that Ten Hag and a couple of others of United’s top brass, made him out to be a ‘black sheep’ and were trying to force him out of the club.

Ronaldo also accused Manchester United’s hierarchy of “doubting” his words when he told them his new-born daughter was sick after the death of his new-born son.

Ronaldo said, “They kind of didn’t believe… something was wrong… which made me feel bad.” He added, “I didn’t go to… pre-season because of that. I wouldn’t let my family suffer for… pre-season.”

The striker also claimed Manchester United’s owners, the Glazer family, do not care about the club.

“The Glazers, they don’t care about the club. I mean, professional sport, as you know, Manchester is a marketing club. They will get money from the marketing – the sport, it’s, they don’t really care, in my opinion,” said the Portuguese.

Ronaldo then talked about the stagnation at United since he left the club in 2009.

“Nothing changed. Surprisingly. Not only the pool, the jacuzzi, even the gym… Even some points, the technology, the kitchen, the chefs, which is, I appreciate, lovely persons,” said Ronaldo.

Notably, the interview ultimately resulted in Manchester United and Ronaldo parting ways by mutual agreement.

Qatar a controversial host of the FIFA World Cup

From its treatment of migrant workers to restrictive social laws and LGBTQ rights, the 2022 Qatar World Cup has been mired in controversy ever since its host nation won its 2010 bid.

In fact, Sepp Blatter, the ex-president of FIFA, in an interview has called the decision to award Qatar the 2022 World Cup a ‘mistake’.

“It was a mistake,” Blatter said in an interview with AFP’s German sports subsidiary SID. “It was based on a decision when I was president, and therefore I bear part of the responsibility for it.”

The host country has come under intense pressure over its treatment of foreign workers, restrictive social laws and LGBTIQ rights, leading to many teams participating raising concerns, although the country has denied claims that workers were exploited.

However, in an interview with Piers Morgan, which aired on TalkTV in November, Hassan Al-Thawadi, Secretary General of the Qatar’s Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC), said that between 400 and 500 migrant workers have died as a result of work done on projects connected to the tournament.

As per Forbes, Qatar relied on 30,0000 labourers from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and the Philippines to build its infrastructure.

Notably, Qatar’s human rights record became a part of the public discourse. In 2013, The Guardian published an investigation into the shocking conditions migrant construction workers endured in Qatar, toiling in the heat and living in squalid camps. It kick-started a decade-long deluge of media reports and investigations, notably by Norwegian magazine Josimar, portraying human misery caused by deceptive recruitment practices, wage abuses and passport confiscation enabled by the kafala or sponsorship system. Those labour abuses extended to the majority of Qatar’s migrant workforce and not just World Cup workers.

‘Homosexuality is a damage of mind’: In an interview filmed in Doha slated to be screened, former Qatari international Khalid Salman addressing, the issue of homosexuality, which is illegal in the conservative Muslim country, told German television broadcaster ZDF that homosexuality was “damage in the mind”.

Qatari law prescribes a penalty of 1-3 years in prison for “leading, instigating or seducing a male . . . to commit sodomy.” Separate laws prescribe up to seven years for anyone who “copulates” with a man or woman over the age of 16 “without compulsion, duress or ruse.”

“They have to accept our rules here,” Salman said, in an excerpt of the interview. “(Homosexuality) is haram. You know what haram (forbidden) means?”.

When asked why it was haram, Salman said: “I am not a strict Muslim but why is it haram? Because it is damage in the mind.”

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