Sledging, Intimidation, Confrontation & Apologies - Here's What Happened In The U-19 World Cup Final
It was a historic day for Bangladesh as their young guns lifted a maiden U-19 World Cup title. But the unnecessary spat with the Indian players after the game left a bad taste in the mouth. Yes, the skipper apologised, but the fact that his boys lost control shows that aggression needs to be controlled.
It was a historic day for Bangladesh as their young guns lifted a maiden U-19 World Cup title. But the unnecessary spat with the Indian players after the game left a bad taste in the mouth. Yes, the skipper apologised, but the fact that his boys lost control shows that aggression needs to be controlled.
But this was only the end result. The way Bangladesh were behaving during the course of the game was what led up to this. So to trace the root of the problem it is time to go back to where it all started.
The Bangladeshi pacers were in the face of the Indian openers early on. They were jabbering away and the level of sledging was off the charts. They were also backing it up with good bowling. Shoriful Islam and Tanzim Hasan Sakib were the ones who were constantly nagging away with their mouths and an impeccable line and length. Something was going to give, and it it.
Sakib threw the ball towards the stumps except it was nowhere near the wickets. The ball almost hit opener Divyansh Saxena. It almost struck his helmet and since the stumps were nowhere near, the batsman was not amused and slammed the bowler. It did not end there, the bowler did not even apologise to the batsman. The umpire intervened and warned him of the consequences.
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Avishek Das was the chief destroyer with 3 wickets and he too was jabbering away. By sheer sledging and intimidation, Bangladesh kept India in check and were all over the Boys in Blue.
However if we thought that there would be no more of such conduct by Bangladeshis, we were sadly mistaken. As Bangladesh inched closer to the target, the aggressive mindset was still visible on the players outside the boundary. Shoriful was spotted swearing many times on camera.
Then came the final straw when Bangladesh won. The players rushed onto the field to celebrate and in doing so engaged in pushing and shoving of the Indian cricketers. In fact both team almost came to blows but their coaches and skippers diffused the situation. But the way Bangladesh had been behaving, this was going to happen sooner or later.
Indian skipper Priyam Garg felt it was not a good reaction from the Bangladeshis.
"We were easy. We think it's part and parcel of the game - you win some and you lose some. But their reaction was dirty. I think it shouldn't have happened. But it's okay," Garg said in the post-match conference.
Bangladesh captain Akbar Ali, who was there at the end, apologised and also congratulated India for the fight they put up. He said it was regrettable what his players did.
"What happened, it should not have happened," he said.
"I don't know what exactly happened. I didn't ask what was going on. But, you know, in the final, emotion can come out, and sometimes the boys were getting pumped, and emotions were coming through. As a youngster, it shouldn't happen. In any position, in any manner, we have to show respect to the opponent, we should have respect for the game," he added.
"I'll say India-Bangladesh rivalry bring the part, and before the World Cup final, we lost the Asia Cup final to them a couple of months ago. So I think the boys are really pumped up and take revenge. I won't say it should have happened, but I will be sorry for my side," he went on to say.
It may have been the rush of young blood or being carried away by the sense of the occasion, but nothing excuses such behaviour on the field. No doubt Bangladesh earned the win, but the way they played leaves a lot to be desired. One has to give kudos to India for keeping their cool for most part of the match.
