Bangladesh Captain Indirectly Targets Harmanpreet Kaur in New Statement

ByAnupam Pandey,SportsCafe Editor

Yesterday at 12:19 PM

The Bangladesh cricket team finds itself in a controversy yet again. But this time, the controversy is linked with the Women's team, as allegations have come up against Nigar Sultana. Responding to the same, she has indirectly taken a dig at Harmanpreet Kaur too.

The Bangladesh Women's team has made it to the headlines yet again. There have been controversies surrounding the team previously, but now it is related to physical assault. These were made a few weeks ago by Jahanara Alam, who used to play for the team, but has left the game for more than a year.

Alam said that the Bangladeshi skipper, Nigar Sultana used to assault her and the other players. She even made some allegations against the former men's player who was a part of the coaching staff. But now, Nigar Sultana has finally responded to the allegations which were made by a former teammate.

1. Jahanara Alam's Statement

Jahanara Alam used to play for Bangladesh across different formats. But she made her last appearance for the team back in December 2024. Since then, she has been residing in Australia and said that she wanted a break from the game. When the ICC Women's World Cup was going on, Alam on the team's skipper, Nigar Sultana.

She said,“This is nothing new. Joty beats up the juniors a lot. Even during this World Cup, the juniors told me, 'No, I won't do this again. Then I'll have to get slapped again.' I heard from some people, 'I got beaten up yesterday.' Even during the Dubai tour, she called a junior into the room and slapped her.”

Jahanara Alam also said that favouritism takes place in the Bangladesh Women's team. And she alleged physical assault by the Bangladeshi captain to have done not just on her, but even

Continuing the allegations, she said,“Actually, I am not alone, everyone in the Bangladesh team is more or less a victim. Everyone's suffering is different. Here, one or two people get advanced facilities and in some cases, only one person gets them. In 2021, the process of eliminating seniors like me along with a few others from the post-Covid camp began. Then I was made the captain of one of the three teams in the Bangladesh Games. The captains of the other two teams were Jyoti (Nigar Sultana) and Sharmin Sultana. The pressure on seniors started from then on.”

2. Nigar Sultana Responds

Nigar Sultana didn't immediately react to the allegations which were made on her by a former teammate. Bangladesh's team also didn't do well in the Women's World Cup, being among the first teams to be knocked out of the tournament. But now, she has which were made by Alam.

Sultana said,“Why would I hit anyone? I mean, why would I strike the stumps with my bat? Am I Harmanpreet, that I would go around hitting the stumps like that? Why would I do it? In my personal space, if I’m cooking or something, I might bang my bat around, I might hit my helmet – that’s my own business.”

She had targeted the Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur for having aggressive behaviour. Along with that, Sultana also rejected the claims which were made by Jahanara Alam of her assaulting the other teammates. It should be noted that she targeted Harmanpreet Kaur for the incident which

Sultana further said,“But why would I do something like that to someone else? Why would I get physical? Just because someone says so? You can ask the other players or anyone else whether I’ve ever done anything like that.”

3. Harmanpreet Kaur’s 2023 Incident

The incident due to which Nigar Sultana talked about Harmanpreet Kaur was back in 2023. It was during the India tour of Bangladesh, and in the final ODI, where both teams faced each other. Harmanpreet Kaur looked well set on the crease but in the game, she looked disappointed with the umpiring decisions.

Harmanpreet Kaur was caught at the slip, as she was not able to connect with the sweep shot well. The umpire gave her out, and she smashed the stumps with the bat and had a heated chat with the umpires. The appeal was done for LBW, and Harman believed that it was not an LBW. For this, she had a chat with the umpire before walking off.

Even after the match, Harmanpreet Kaur expressed her concerns with the umpiring standards in the game. She said,“A lot of learning from this game. Even apart from the cricket, the type of umpiring that was happening there, we were very surprised.”