Although the ICC has not yet sent a final verdict, the Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur might become the first player in the world of women’s cricket to be guilty of breaching the ICC code of conduct. Incidentally, the Indian captain expressed her disappointment against unfair umpiring on the field as well as in the post-match presentation. In all probabilities, she is going to be penalized four demerit points because of her poor behavior on the field as well as off the field. This incident happened in the third one-day international between India and Bangladesh.
What was the incident?
Tanvir Ahmed, the on-field umpire, declared that Harmanpreet was dismissed after she was caught at the slips during the match. This enraged the Indian skipper who hit the stumps with her bat and also protested the umpire’s decision before leaving by making a gesture. That was not all and she described the standards of umpiring as pathetic in this particular series following the match.
The final decision on the punishment of the Indian captain will depend on the ICC in the long run. However, the officials of the match penalized Harmanpreet three demerit points because of damaging the playing gear plus one more demerit point for criticizing the umpires publicly.
In case a player receives four to seven demerit points within a period of 24 months, it will not be possible for her to play in one test match, two one-day internationals, or a couple of T20Is, depending on whichever arrives first according to the schedule.
Here, we like to mention that the Indian captain also received a demerit point when the semifinal of the one-the international was going on between India and Australia for the World Cup 2017. In that particular match, Harmanpreet was able to complete a double along with her batting partner Deepti Sharma in spite of being involved in a mix-up between the two after hitting Kristen Beams, the Australian bowler, through midwicket. Surprisingly, in spite of scoring a century by completing the double, the Indian captain did not celebrate, instead, she threw the helmet that she was wearing on the ground before firing some words at her batting partner. This particular incident was responsible for making Harmanpreet guilty of a Level 1 offense which she had to accept.
Comments made by the Indian skipper
After the match between India and Bangladesh, Harmanpreet mentioned that they had many things to learn from the match and it was quite surprising that the umpiring was so pathetic in this match. She also added that the Indian team has to be prepared next time when they come to Bangladesh since they might have to deal with this sort of umpiring once again. Harmanpreet told that they were controlling the match very well but they were quite disappointed because of the poor standards of umpiring that happened right there.
