Potchefstroom: The Under-19 World Cup final between India and Bangladesh ended on a controversial note as the moments after the match ended, an altercation was witnessed among a few players from both the Indian and Bangladesh camp on Sunday at Senwes Park here.
Speaking on the incident, Anil Patel, the team manager of India U19 team, has confirmed that the ICC will take action after Bangladesh players’ unacceptable behaviour.
After Bangladesh won the final beating the Priyam Garg-led side by three wickets (via DLS), the players of the two teams were seen engaging in an exchange of words and even some pushing and shoving on the field.
Sprinting towards the field after a thrilling victory, Bangladeshi players were also believed to have passed unwelcome comments on Indian players which triggered an altercation between both sets of parties.
Meanwhile, Patel confirmed that the Indian team-management was shocked by the events and was set to talk to the match officials before the match referee himself approached them.
He also revealed that ICC is going to take the matter seriously and investigate the footage of the final minutes of the match and update the team on Monday.
“We don’t know what actually happened. Everybody was in shock, absolutely, but we don’t know what happened exactly. The ICC officials are going to watch the footage of the last few minutes and they are going to let us know,” Anil Patel told a website.
“The referee came to me. He was sorry about the incident. He clarified the ICC is going to take very seriously what has happened during the match and the last session and they are going to witness the footage and they will tell us in the morning [on the next step],” he added.
Noticeably, Bangladesh bowlers were overtly aggressive from the word go, with fast bowlers Shoriful Islam and Tanzim Hasan Sakib mouthing words to India openers Yashasvi Jaiswal and Divyansh Saxena.
As early as in the second over of the match, Saxena had tapped a ball back to bowler Sakib, who picked it up and hurled it back, sending it flying not too far from the batsman's head. It was followed by a bit of staring and mouthing-off and needed intervention on the part of the umpire.
Also, after dismissing Jaiswal, bowler Shoriful couldn't resist giving the Indian batter a bit of a send-off.
Even when Bangladesh approached the winning runs, Shoriful was seen swearing multiple times openly on camera.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh captain Akbar Ali, regretted the unwanted aggression from his players which nearly resulted into a free for all after his team won the coveted trophy.
“Cricket is known for being a gentleman’s game. So I’ll say, I’ll be sorry for my team,” Ali said during the post-match press conference.
“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," he added.
