Smriti Mandhana defends Harmanpreet Kaur after criticism of umpires

India batter Smriti Mandhana came out in support of her captain Harmanpreet Kaur after the Women in Blue skipper courted controversy for her on-field behaviour and sharp comments on the Bangladeshi umpires after the third ODI between India and Bangladesh in Mirpur on Saturday.

Chasing 225, India were bowled out on the same score as the match ended in a tie and the three-match ODI series finished 1-1.

Harmanpreet was given out LBW on 14 in India’s chase off Nahida Akter. The decision did not go down well with Harmanpreet as she broke the stumps with her bat and was also seen arguing with the umpire.

Later during the post-match presentation, Harmanpreet slammed the Bangladeshi umpires Muhammad Kamruzzaman and Tanvir Ahmed.

“I think (there is) a lot of learning for us from the game. Even apart from the cricket, the kind of umpiring that was happening, we were very surprised. The next time we come to Bangladesh we will make sure we have to deal with this type of umpiring and prepare ourselves accordingly,” Harmanpreet said.

Asker about her captain’s on-field reaction, Mandhana said that it was “part and parcel” of the game and Harmanpreet’s backlash was made in the “heat of the moment”.

“When you play for India, you want to win the match, and it happens in the heat of the moment. I think she [Harmanpreet] wasn’t really happy with the decision given and she felt she wasn’t out. That is why that [reaction] came about. It is just the heat of the moment and nothing much,” Mandhana said.

“What happened in the middle is a part and parcel of the game. We’ve seen these incidents so much in the past as well. When you really want that ‘W’ on the board for India, these things happen.”

Mandhana also asked ICC to appoint neutral umpires for future series.

“In any match, sometimes it happens that you are really not happy with the [decisions]. Especially when there is no DRS in a match in a series of this kind, we kind of expect a little better level of umpiring in terms of some decisions. It was very evident that there was not even a second thought given when the ball was hitting the pad when our batters were batting. There was not even one second of thought given before the finger went up,” she said.

“I am sure the ICC, BCB and BCCI will have more of a discussion on that and maybe we can have a neutral-umpiring system from maybe next time so that we don’t sit here having these discussions and maybe we can focus more on cricket and cricket-oriented questions.”

It was also reported that during the end-of-series team photograph session, Harmanpreet yelled “bring the umpires too”, which led to Bangladesh captain Nigar Sultana taking her players back to the dressing room soon.

Nigar was asked about the incident in the post-match press conference.

“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,” she said about the incident.

On the criticism of the umpires, Nigar 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]?”