Dean Elgar responded to the visiting side’s vocal expression against his team’s sledging in the first Test in Durban, with the message from him being to “harden up” and play the game at a level which the tourists are perhaps not used to.
Elgar’s remark came after the Bangladesh think-tank had publicly expressed their issue and alleged the umpires of ignoring multiple on-field complaints against the hosts’ sledging and inappropriate comments over the five days of play at the Kingsmead.
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But while the visitors declared their intention to lodge an official complaint to the ICC, including for 50-50 umpiring decisions, they did not go ahead with it, as confirmed by their skipper Mominul Haque.
Seeing the whole episode play itself out, Elgar thinks Bangladesh need to get a little more thick-skinned in their approach. He also made a counterclaim, saying the Proteas only responded in equal measure to some of the comments made by the visitors.
“I don’t think they’re justified, whatsoever. We play the game hard, and if anything we were just giving back what we were getting when we were batting. It is Test cricket. It’s a man’s environment when it comes to playing at this level, and I intend to play the game hard,”
ESPNcricinfo quoted Elgar as saying ahead of the second Test, starting on April 8 .
Elgar also said that at no point in the game did they use any “foul language” against the Bangladeshi players, adding it was normal banter to try and get under the skins of the opposition.
Speaking to the press after Elgar’s interview was over, Mominul said his Bangladeshi side “never complained” against sledging, a U-turn of sorts after comments that umpires didn’t act upon their complaints of excessive sledging in the Test match.
Bangladesh also had a major problem with the number of decisions made by home-based umpires Marais Erasmus and Adrian Holdstock, particularly in the third innings.
So much so that their team director Khaled Mahmud felt they could have been chasing a lot less if not for those calls, and their selector Habibul Bashar asked the International Cricket Council to consider going back to neutral umpires.
Chasing a target of 274, the Bangla Tigers collapsed woefully inside just 19 overs to be 53 all out, their second-lowest innings total in Test match history.
