Smriti Mandhana Fires Back At Reporter Questioning Harmanpreet Kaur's Criticism Of Umpires
Talking about Harmanpreet Kaur's actions being contrary to 'Spirit of Cricket', Smriti Mandhana said that will be a discussion for another day.
Harmanpreet Kaur might have gone ballistic but Indian vice-captain Smriti Mandhana was way more tempered in her criticism of Bangladeshi umpires Muhammad Kamruzzaman and Tanvir Ahmed after the third WODI on Saturday was tied with some debatable decisions coming under scanner. Both teams wre locked at identical score of 225 and the series ended in a 1-1 draw. Skipper Kaur has courted controversy after she was adjudged leg-before off a Nahida Akter delivery while trying to sweep. She claimed that the ball hit the bat before hitting the pads. She broke the stumps in disgust and termed the umpiring "pathetic" at post-match presentation.
"What did you think?" Mandhana shot back when questioned about the umpiring.
"In any match, sometimes it happens that you are not really happy with the kind of… especially when there is no DRS in the series this time," Mandhana said.
"We expect a little better level — I would term it in a better way that, better level of umpiring in terms of some decisions, because it was very evident in some decisions, there was not even a second thought given if the ball hit the pad. Not even one-second thought was given and the finger went up,” Mandhana's suppressed her anger with a more balanced reply.
Mandhana hoped having neutral umpires would be the way forward.
"I am sure that ICC, the BCB and the BCCI will definitely have a discussion on that, maybe we have a neutral umpiring system so that we do not sit here having this discussion, maybe we can focus on cricket and cricket-oriented questions," she said.
Talking about Kaur's actions being contrary to 'Spirit of Cricket', Mandhana said that will be a discussion for another day.
"What happened in the middle is part and parcel of the game. We have seen these incidents so much in the past in men's cricket,” Mandhana said in defence.
"When you play for India, you want to win the match. It happens in the heat of the moment, but I think she was not really happy with the decision given (against her). She was given out and she felt that she was not out," she added.
"When you want to win so badly, I think the spirit of the game and all those things, definitely we can talk about later. But knowing Harman as a person, knowing how much she wants to win for India, from the spirit of the game (perspective) that it is (wrong), but yeah, when you really want that ‘W' on the board for India, these things happen."
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
India Women
Bangladesh Women