NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: A controversy seems to have soured the after-taste of a thrilling
Under-19 World Cup final
between India and Bangladesh on Sunday at
Potchefstroom
in South Africa.
Both the teams had a go at each other during the entire match, and once the match was over, the Bangladesh players rushed on to the field and celebrated aggressively. This saw players of the two teams exchanging some heated words and even indulge in pushing and shoving, with a couple of Indian players charging towards their Bangladeshi counterparts. A video of the incident, which does not reflect well on some of the young players, soon went viral.
On Sunday, India Under-19 manager Anil Patel told TOI that the ICC had taken a “serious view of the incident.” “We brought it to the attention of match referee (former Sri Lankan pacer Graeme Labrooy). He has taken a serious view of the incident. He will view the footage of the entire incident,” Patel said from Potchefstroom.
While Bangladesh captain Akbar Ali apologised for the “unfortunate incident”, his Indian counterpart Priyam Garg called their reaction “dirty.”
However, India coach Paras Mhambrey said that his team would not press the issue any further. “What happened was unfortunate. We are not pressing anything from our end. There’s no point in going into who started it or anything else. We are moving on. ICC and match referee will look into it and it’s up to them to decide if any action needs to be taken,” he told TOI.
“We have to reflect on ourselves. We have laid a lot of emphasis on behaviour and over-all growth. But we also understand these are kids and can get emotional,” he added.
The ICC, on its part, is waiting for the match referee’s report, before announcing any action on the players. “We will wait to see the match officials report,” said a source.
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