Potchefstroom: India captain Priyam Garg has called the aggressive celebration of Bangladesh players “dirty” following their maiden title triumph at the Under-19 World Cup here.
Some of the Bangladeshi players got carried away with their celebration after their historic win over India in the final here on Sunday. While their captain Akbar Ali apologised for the “unfortunate incident”, his Indian counterpart Garg felt it is something that should not have happened. “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.
Even when the match on, Bangladesh players were overtly aggressive while fielding with their lead pacer Shoriful Islam sledging the Indian batsmen after every delivery. In fact as Bangladesh approached the winning runs, Shoriful was seen swearing multiple times on camera. However, his skipper Ali showed maturity beyond his age to apologise on behalf of the players. “What happened, it should not (have) happened. 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 the respect to the opponent, we should have respect for the game. Cricket is known for being a gentleman’s game. So I’ll say, I’ll be sorry for my team,” said Ali, who scored an unbeaten 43 in a high-pressure situation.
Over the past two years, both teams were involved in close games with India getting the better of them on two important occasions — the Asia Cup final and tri-series final last year.
A source close to the Indian team management told PTI “none of the Indian players was at fault”. (PTI)
