Top 10 Sporting Cheats...

Whether by using illegal substances, trying to fool the officials, or just good old-fashioned skulduggery, every major sport has had the occasional high-profile cheat among its ranks. Here is selection of the ten most memorable. By Rob Phipps.


10. Michael Schumacher



Seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher might be the greatest ever Formula 1 driver - but his reputation is tarnished by his fondness for barging rivals off the track. Damon Hill, Jacques Villeneuve and David Coulthard all felt the full force of the man who, like Dick Dastardly, couldn't help using nefarious means when his sheer speed was all he needed.


9. Boris Onischenko



Soviet modern pentathlete Boris Onischenko left the 1976 Olympics in Montreal in disgrace when it was discovered he had equipped his sword with a button that allowed him to trigger the electronic scoring system at will. One could almost admire his ingenuity if it hadn't been put to such a crooked use.


8. Greg Chappell



Australian cricket captain Greg Chappell caused uproar in 1981 when he ordered brother Trevor to bowl underarm to prevent New Zealand hitting the six needed off the last ball to tie their World Series Cup Final in Melbourne. Cheating? It wasn't against the rules - but it certainly wasn't cricket.


7. Muhammad Ali



Revered as a sporting icon, Muhammad Ali could have had a very different career had he lost to Henry Cooper at Wembley in 1963. Ali was floored in the fourth by Cooper's left hook and was so dazed that, during the interval, his trainer, Angelo Dundee, cut his glove, meaning another had to be found and giving Ali time to recover.


6. Hansie Cronje



While the Chappell incident was comic farce, Hansie Cronje's story leaves a bitter taste. The South African cricket captain confessed in 2000 to taking bookmakers' bribes to fix games, including persuading team-mates to help fix a One-Day International against India. Banned for life from cricket, Cronje died in an air crash in 2002.


5. Rivaldo



Feigning injury is commonplace in football, but one of the most high-profile and most ridiculous in recent years came from Brazilian midfield maestro Rivaldo, whose theatrical clutching of his face after a stray ball hit his leg resulted in a red card for a poor Turk and an undeserved Brazilian victory.


4. Floyd Landis


Cycling's Tour de France has suffered numerous drugs scandals, but Floyd Landis' failed drug test after winning the 2006 yellow jersey topped them all. Five-time winner Jacques Anquetil once said you don't ride the Tour 'on mineral water alone'; sadly, it appears he was right.


3. Tonya Harding


American figure skater Tonya Harding's career hit the buffers when her former husband Jeff Gillooly had Nancy Kerrigan, her rival for the 1994 US Championships, hit on the knee with a metal bar. Harding denied involvement but admitted helping cover up the attack. Reputation in tatters, her career spiralled downwards into celebrity boxing and pornography.

2. Diego Maradona




A sublime talent with no need of the dark arts, footballer Diego Maradona punched the ball past England's Peter Shilton to help Argentina win their 1986 World Cup quarter-final - the 'Hand of God', as Maradona called it. Foul play is nothing new in football but no-one before or since so brazenly delighted in the act of cheating.


1. Ben Johnson




Ben Johnson's gold-winning run in the 100 metres men's final at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, in a world record 9.79 seconds, was astonishing - except it was fuelled by steroids. It was a terrible blow for the reputation of track and field, coming as it did in the blue riband event, fuelling the current cynicism that surrounds any outstanding athletic performance.




Source:Virgin Media

Good one

[itsmemad]

Good thread!

I'll add few more I dug out...

• Fred Lorz
  Marathon champion who travelled by car
  The marathon at the St Louis Olympic Games of 1904 was held over a hilly course in the middle of a scorching afternoon. Small wonder only 14 of the 32 starters made it to the finish. First home, after three hours 13 minutes, was a New Yorker, Fred Lorz, who was immediately proclaimed the winner. He had already been photographed with Alice Roosevelt, the daughter of the President of the United States, and was about to be awarded the gold medal, when word got out that he had covered 11 miles as the passenger in a car. The crowd's acclaim rapidly turned to abuse. Although Lorz claimed it was a practical joke, he received a lifetime ban, which was later lifted. Thomas Hicks, an English-born American who was awarded the race, might have been disqualified himself after his handlers gave him strychnine and brandy to keep him going.
  
• Sylvester Carmouche
  Jockey who ensured that punters didn't have the foggiest
  On a foggy afternoon, a real pea-souper, in January 1990, Sylvester Carmouche surprised punters at Louisana's Delta Downs Racetrack by finishing first on 23-1 long-shot Landing Officer. But all was not as it seemed. Carmouche had dropped out of the mile-long race while lost from view and then rejoined the field as they came round again before galloping to 'victory'. He should have waited a little longer. The fact that he won by 24 lengths and came within 1.2sec of the track record inevitably raised suspicions. The stewards disqualified him even though he protested his innocence. Later he received a 10-year ban after the other jockeys in the race testified that Carmouche had not passed them.
  
  Eventually he admitted to what he had done. He was reinstated after serving eight years of his suspension.
  
• Michel Pollentier
  Cyclist caught extracting the urine
  Jacques Anquetil, one of the giants of the Tour de France, once remarked: 'You don't ride the Tour on mineral water.'(lol.. once again) Whatever it was Michel Pollentier rode it on we'll never be absolutely sure because he was disqualified during the 1978 race, not because of what was in his urine but because the urine he gave at a drug test wasn't his. Pollentier had just hurtled up the precipitous Alpe d'Huez to win, alone, and take the race leader's yellow jersey. According to one report, officials conducting the post-stage test became suspicious when, 'Pollentier began pumping his elbow in and out as if playing a set of bagpipes'. Ordered to lift his jersey, the Belgian did so to reveal an elaborate plumbing system running from a rubber, urine-filled bulb under his arm to the test tube. Pollentier served a two-month suspension before he started racing again. The practice of substituting uncontaminated urine was reckoned to be widespread at the time.
  
• Chicago White Sox baseball team
  Throwing the 1919 World Series
  It became known as the Black Sox scandal after eight Chicago White Sox were charged with accepting money from gamblers to throw the 1919 World Series, won 5-3 by the Cincinnati Reds. The gamblers, including former boxing champion Abe Attell, promised $100,000 to eight Sox players, and the following year a Chicago grand jury convened to investigate the case. Some of the eight, including 'Shoeless' Joe Jackson, confessed to the jury. They had been told no action would be taken against them, but were immediately suspended. On their way out, a young boy is said to have called out to Jackson: 'Say it ain't so, Joe.' (The phrase become one of the most famous in American sporting history, though Jackson later claims the incident never happened.) In June 1921, just before the jury trial was due to begin, the players' testimony mysteriously disappeared and they were acquitted due to lack of evidence. But Kenesaw Mountain Landis, a former federal court judge who was installed as an all-powerful baseball commissioner, upheld the suspensions, declaring: 'Regardless of the verdict of juries... no player that sits in conference with a bunch of crooked players and gamblers... will ever play professional baseball.'

What about Ricky Ponting guys? How can he be let out of this list?!! Bhul gaye Ind - Aus Test Series in Australia?

[itsmemad]

Yeah,

Obviously hez a cheat!

Very good point saurav Ricky truely deserves top spot

[sujithsukrutham]

Wonderful info!!!!!

[vikramjb]

Originally Posted by saurav_kataruka

What about Ricky Ponting guys? How can he be let out of this list?!! Bhul gaye Ind - Aus Test Series in Australia?

Why what hapnd ?

Originally Posted by vikramjb

Why what hapnd ?

you dont know??

Check out these pics:









KUCH YAAD AAYA??

Go through these links if you still dont remember:

Cricinfo - Ponting insulted by 'cheating' claims

Cyber Scrap: Ponting is a cheat and a disgrace to the game of cricket and should be banned

Shame on Ricky Ponting, shame on Australia, shame on the ICC - Sportingo

Aussies cheated in Sydney: Sehwag*-*News*-*Australia in India*-*Specials*-*Cricket on Times of India

[vikramjb]

Oh yeah now i remember, this is when there was a case against harbhajjan who allegedly called Symons some name which I don't want to mention lest symonds comes here files a case against the site and us

[amitkool21]

one more pakistani bowler Sarfaraj Nawaj also who used to rub the bowl with a rough surface to swing it....and i guess all of us knows that he was the 1st master of the swing..........