The skipper of the Indian women cricket team, Harmanpreet Kaur is currently the talk of the town because of what she had done in the last match of the 3-match ODI series against Bangladesh and during the post-match presentation as well.
Harmanpreet Kaur was pretty angry with the umpire after she was given lbw out, she smashed the stumps with the bat and also expressed her dissatisfaction to the umpire. During the presentation, Harmanpreet Kaur slammed the umpiring in the series and said that next time whenever they visit Bangladesh, they would come prepared for pathetic umpiring. It didn’t end here, when the skippers of both the teams were handed over the trophy, Harmanpreet Kaur asked the Bangladeshi team to call the umpires as well as they helped the hosts in tying the series. These comments didn’t go well with the skipper of the Bangladeshi women’s cricket team and she staged a walk-out with her team.
Few former Indian cricketers also expressed their annoyance over Harmanpreet’s behaviour and it was quite obvious that she would be penalized by the ICC.
As per the reports, the ICC has imposed a fine of 75 percent of match fees on Harmanpreet and has given her four demerit points (three demerit points for destroying equipment and one for criticizing match official in public). These four demerit points get converted into two suspension points which means that Harmanpreet Kaur has been banned from one test match or 2 ODIs or 2 T20Is whichever happens first.
This will certainly affect India’s campaign in the Asian Games which are going to take place in Hangzhou, China from 23 September to 8 October as the Indian team will play their next match in Asian Games. The Indian team has made it to the quarter finals based on their rankings in the ODIs and Harmanpreet Kaur will join the team in the finals if the Indian team manages to win the quarters and the semis.
This mistake could prove fatal for the Indian team in Asian Games as missing the skipper in important games could prove costly. What do you say?
