With new season, comes new drama: As IPL 2022 begins, a look at last year's controversial moments

One thing that marred the IPL 2021 was umpiring errors. One especially that grabbed the attention was during the game between the Punjab Kings (PBKS) and the Rajasthan Royals (RR). 

PBKS were cruising towards victory and had needed just eight runs from 12 deliveries. At the crease were Aiden Markram and Nicholas Pooran and the two looked all set to take their side home. However, Mustafizur Rahman, who was bowling the second last over had got away with two no-balls.

The seamer was seen bowling wide on the crease and even his foot was seen touching the return crease on both occasions. Not just that, even Kartik Tyagi, who had bowled a wide delivery to Deepak Hooda in the last over had got away with it.

This incident had drawn a lot of backlashes which saw netizens asking the biggest league in the world to have proper umpiring decisions to be taken.

This controversy had occurred during the game between the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and the Delhi Capitals (DC) and the silly error made by the umpire could not be neglected.

The incident took place in the final over of the second innings and the Delhi side needed six from the last over. Chennai had given Dwayne Bravo to bowl. 

The pacer bowled a wide outside the off-stump of the West Indies batter Shimron Hetmyer and it was so wide that the ball even failed to land on the pitch. 

In an ideal scenario, this should have been a no-ball. However, umpire Anil Chaudhry, after giving a no-ball, suddenly changed his decision and gave it a wide. 

This decision did not sit well with several cricket pundits and even legendary cricketer Sunil Gavaskar criticised the umpire's decision.

The IPL 2021 surely had a lot of umpiring issues as again during the PBKS and RCB match, an error was made, but this time by a third umpire.

With today's cricketing world having all the needed technology, still, the umpire did not make the right call. The incident took place when RCB opener Devdutt Paddikal was not given out and PBKS skipper KL Rahul had to go for a review. 

The ultra edge showed a clear spike during the review and despite that, the third umpire had stated he was not convinced and decided to give it not out.

This angered one and all and even KL Rahul was seen arguing with the umpire Ananthapadmanabhan. 

One cricketer when it comes to IPL and is always part of some controversy is Ravichandran Ashwin. His love for foreign players is to another level.

After his mankading controversy with Jos Buttler in 2019, the year 2021 saw him involved withKKR skipper Eoin Morgan. The incident took place during the DC and KKR game. 

While batting in the death overs, the spinner had decided to take the extra run after a throw from Rahul Tripathi deflected off his skipper Rishabh Pant's bat at the non-striker's end.

This 'extra-run' did not sit well with a few people and several former cricketers including Shane Warne criticized Ashwin for going against the "Spirit of the Game". 

The biggest controversy of the IPL 2021 was the sacking of David Warner as Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) skipper. It all started after Warner had not managed to score in the initial phase of the IPL 2021 tournament. 

It first led to him being kept on the sidelines to later him being removed as the captain as a whole and it was handed over to Kane Williamson.

The incident was even aggravated after the then SRH skipper had said that it was a "harsh call" by the selectors to drop Manish Pandey after their game against DC. He had publicly called out his team's selectors and created a controversy. Prior to that, many had even questioned him for not picking Kane Williamson in SRH’s playing XI.

Many believed that his removal as captain was done due to the fact of him calling out his selectors in front of the entire world.