“Am I Harmanpreet?”- Bangladesh’s Nigar Sultana’s dig at India skipper as she refutes abusing junior players

The Bangladeshi women's cricket team captain, Nigar Sultana Joty, has finally responded to allegations that she mistreated the team's younger players.   

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Simultaneously, the wicketkeeper-batter ridiculed the captain of the Women's World Cup winning team, Harmanpreet Kaur, and appeared to make reference to the issue surrounding the Indian skipper during the nation's 2023 tour to Bangladesh.

After being called out LBW during the series, Harmanpreet became furious with the incompetent umpiring and used her bat to destroy the stumps on her way back. She even made fun of the Bangladeshi players during the trophy photo session and referred to the umpiring as "pathetic" during the post-match presentation.

After pacer Jahanara Alam accused Nigar Sultana of abusing and even physically harming the team's younger players, Nigar became embroiled in a massive controversy.

“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.

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," Sultana said in an interview with Daily Cricket.

In an interview with Riasad Azim, Jahanara, who now resides in Australia, revealed that teenage cricket players had gotten in touch with her to complain that Joty had struck them. 

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The Bangladeshi captain denied this claim, saying that instead of reporting the incident to higher authorities, juniors would have called a foreign resident if it had actually happened.

“The way I’ve been described in front of everyone—I’m not that kind of girl at all. First, I heard that Jahanara apu has made an allegation about me, saying that someone called her in Australia and said, ‘Please save us, Jyoti apu is beating us and finishing us off.’ What I’m trying to say is: someone who hasn’t been here for six or seven years and has gone off to Australia—if I really beat someone or harmed someone in any way, is there no team management, no manager, no coaching staff? Am I the ultimate authority then? What I mean is, if this player had a problem, why would she call Jahanara apu all the way in Australia? She could’ve shared it with anyone here,” Nigar added.

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