BCCI secretary Jay Shah announces Laxman, Roger Binny intervention after Harmanpreet Kaur suspended for Dhaka bust up
On Tuesday, three days after the conclusion of the ODI series in Dhaka, ICC handed India captain Harmanpreet Kaur a two-match suspenion for breaching the Code of Conduct on two separate ocassions during the series decider on Saturday at the Sher-e-Bangla stadium.
Amid the delay in ICC releasing a statement on the incident, veteran India cricketers called for “strict action” against Harmanpreet from BCCI and finally on Thursday, board secretary Jay Shah broke silence on their stance on the incident.
Harmanpreet was fined for two separate breach of Code of Conduct during the third match of the ICC Women’s Championship series against Bangladesh. In the first, the 34-year-old smashed the stumps in utter frustration after her dismissal when she was adjudged caught at slip during India’s chase. She was fined 50 per cent of her match fee for the Level 2 offence and received three demerit points.
After the match, she questioned the standard of umpiring in the match, calling it “pathetic”, for which was was found guilty of breaching article 2.8 of the Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel, pertaining to “showing dissent at an umpire’s decision”. Harmanpreet was fined 25 per cent of her match fee for a Level 1 offence relating to publicly criticising the match official and was handed one demerit point.
On Friday, during a media conference, Shah opened up on BCCI’s stance on the the incident in Dhaka, revealing that the board won’t appeal for revocation or relaxation of Harmanpreet’s ban given that the time for appeal is over.
He also revealed that BCCI president Roger Binny and NCA head VVS Laxman, the two legends of the sport, will counsel the temperamental Harmanpreet within the next days as per board directive.
Owing to the two-match suspension, Harmanpreet will sit out of the quarterfinal and semifinal match at the 2023 Asian Games and will only have the chance to bounce back from the low by handing India the elusive gold, provided the team goes the distance in her absence.