JOHANNESBURG, Feb 14: The on-going World Cup is turning out to be the most controversial one. None of the seven previous editions of the game’s biggest show were as debatable as this one.

Before the start of the event there were political overtures with three white nations England, New Zealand and Australia expressed serious concerns over their players safety and security in Zimbabwe and Kenya, the other co-host African nations.

Later New Zealand decided to forfeit their match against Kenya in Nairobi, the same course was later adopted by England against Zimbabwe in Harare.

Australia government wanted players not to play in Zimbabwe but that country’s ruling body, the Australian Cricket Board (ACB), has confirmed it will fulfil the commitment.

The requests by the three ‘white’ nations to shift their matches was rightly rejected by the International Cricket Council (ICC), the sport’s governing body. Such a request based purely on politics and the ICC at last bared its teeth and did not bow to political blackmailing.

On the contrary the four Asian nations, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have shown solidarity behind the African states and declared they had no fear of playing in Kenya or Zimbabwe.

But the biggest shock of this prestigious event was certainly that of Australian spin king Shane Warne testing positive for banned substance, diuretic, and being sent home in disgrace.

Never in the history of the World Cup a player was thrown out of the competition. Players are known to take drugs for performance enhancement but no was caught before ‘Shame’ Warne as drug tests have been made mandatory in cricket from this year only. As usual Warne claimed innocence as he took drugs.

For Pakistan, their skipper, Waqar Younis, tarnished the country’s name when English umpire, David Shepherd, rightly so, banned him from completing his over with three balls remaining after he fired two beamers at Andrew Symonds in Tuesday’s match against Australia.

Waqar’s ungentlemanly act brought him the dubious distinction of being the first bowler in World Cup history to be banned from finishing his over. The Pakistani skipper is also the first bowler to be found guilty of ball tampering in a One-day International in Sri Lanka.

The event is barely a week old and it is very much likely that in the coming days a few more scandals may crop up to make the World Cup 2003 even more contentious.