The only thing that made the opening match of ICC World Twenty20 look like a contest was the behaviour of the Afghanistan cricketers, who found it hard to digest their batting performance against Bangladesh in Dhaka on Sunday. Bangladesh bowled out Afghanistan for their lowest ever Twenty20 International total of 72 runs to remind them where they really belong in world cricket after the latter came into the game extremely confident on the back of a win in the Asia Cup.
Afghan wicketkeeper Mohammad Shehzad had an exchange of words with opener Tamim Iqbal as Bangladesh were about to begin their chase. Umpire Nigel Llong intervened quickly to prevent it from turning into a quarrel, but it seemed the Afghans were not prepared to listen.
Pace bowler Dawlat Zadran threw a ball unnecessarily towards Tamim with the batsman not making any attempt to take a run. Tamim avoided injury as the ball hit his bat.
What happened next was unbelievable, to say the least, as Dawlat made an appeal for obstructing the field.
The incident prompted one fan on cricket’s leading website, cricinfo, to comment: ’The attitude of Afghanistan here is quite immature! It is true that they won a match against Bangladesh that does not mean they are at the level of a test playing nation.
All new comers won against established team at some point. They need to keep head down and try to perform. Huffing and puffing won’t help.’
Even Afghanistan fans found the incident unsavoury.
‘As an Afghan I am very disappointed for the attitudes of our players… If you can’t win, congratulate the other team and happily accept the loss, try for your next game,’ said an Afghan fan named Karim.
‘One win against a full member doesn’t mean that you defeat them again. Well played Bangladesh! Respect from Afghanistan.’
The two umpires had a chat with Nabi again, but they could not avoid a repeat incident.
In the ninth over he ran towards batsman Sakib al Hasan in his follow through and almost pushed him in the crease. The incident could have easily blown out of proportion as Sakib was about to hit back before others intervened to calm him down.
The two umpires this time had a more serious conversation with Nabi, and it was not difficult to guess what they had told him.
Nabi, who surprisingly defended his bowler and shifted the blame on Sakib, revealed in the press conference that it was more than just a warning.
‘He couldn’t do anything,’ said Nabi. ‘Sakib was doing something. The umpire said that it’s not good for the future of Afghan cricket.’
The ICC later fined both Dawlat and Sakib 50 per cent of their match fees for deliberate physical contact.
‘…. Dawlat, in his follow through, made deliberate physical contact with Sakib, who in turn reacted and made physical contact with the bowler,’ said an ICC media release.
‘Cricket is a non-contact sport and the teams were reminded at the pre-tournament briefings that intentional and avoidable physical contact of any form is unacceptable and these judgments reflect that,’ sad match referee Madugalle.
Madugalle however did not mete out any added punishment to Dawlat for his previous unsporting behaviour.
-With New Age input
