Harmanpreet accusation confirmed in viral video as post-match act forces BAN team away from photograph session

The talk should have been about the riveting series where Bangladesh managed to hold India to a 1-1 draw in the ODI series.

But the focus shifted completely on Indian captain Harmanpreet Kaur and her act in the third and final game of the series, where she did not just smash the stumps after dismissal and question the standard of umpiring, but in a fresh new footage, has been spotted mocking the Bangladesh side, thereby confirming the accusations made against her.

Harmanpreet was left fuming after her dismissal in the 34th over of the chase when Nahida Akter completed the dismissal with a catch at slip. Unhappy with the umpire’s call, she smashed the stumps with her bat and then on her way out she had a heated exchange with the umpire as well. It was a third instance in the match where India were left disappointed over the decision made by the on-field umpire.

After the match, Harmanpreet lambasted the umpires saying: “A lot of learning from this game. Even apart from the cricket, the type of umpiring that was happening there, we were very surprised. The next time whenever we are coming to Bangladesh, we’ll have to make sure we have to deal with this kind of umpiring and accordingly, we’ll have to prepare ourselves.”

But while players have sometimes been vocal about disagreements made over umpire’s call, the incident left cricket fans shocked was Harmanpreet’s post-match act which forced the Bangladesh players to boycott the joint photograph session.

With the series ending in a draw, and the trophy being shared between the two teams, India and Bangladesh players were together called for a photo session at the end of the post-match presentation. However, in a video, that has gone viral all over internet, Harmanpreet can be seen derisively calling the umpires to join in when the trophy was handed to the two captains, with her act implying that they played a role in home team levelling the series, thus confirming the accusations made by Bangladesh players after the match. In the video, the India skipper can also been mockingly clapping during the photograph session with her act targetting the home team, who can then been seen leaving the area with captain Nigar Sultana fuming at Harmanpreet.

“It is totally her problem. I have nothing to do with it. As a player, she could have shown better manners. I can’t tell you what happened, but it didn’t feel right to be there [for the photograph] with my team. It wasn’t the right environment. That’s why we went back. Cricket is a game of discipline and respect,” Nigar said.

About the umpiring, she said, “The umpires wouldn’t give her out if she wasn’t out. We had umpires from men’s international cricket, so they were good umpires. What are they [India] going to say about the caught or run-out dismissals [of which there were six excluding the Harmanpreet and Meghna wickets]? We have respected their decisions. The umpire’s decision is the final decision, whether I like it or not. Why didn’t we behave in that way [like the India players]?”