Bangladesh, South Africa cricketers get embroiled in physical altercation!
An unsightly incident happened on the cricket field in an Emerging Teams’ four-day match between Bangladesh and South Africa in Dhaka. With Bangladesh batting and South Africa bowling, players of both teams got involved in a heated altercation, leading to a brawl in the middle of the pitch. The incident was triggered after an exchange between 22-year-old Bangladesh batter Ripon Mondol and 29-year-old Proteas pacer Tshepo Ntuli. The fight was soon joined by other players of the team. No immediate action has been taken yet, but the umpires are set to file an official report before sanctions are imposed. As per a report by ESPNcricinfo, Ripon had initially smashed a straight six off Ntuli’s bowling, leading to an exchange of glares between the bowler and the batter. However, after that, as Ripon moved towards his batting partner, Ntuli charged towards the Bangladesh batter. The two players were at first involved in a shove, which quickly turned into a bigger brawl. Ntuli pulled Ripon’s helmet on multiple occasions, despite the attempted interference of umpire Kamruzzaman. Some of the on-looking South African players also appeared to enter the fight. It is unclear whether there had been any verbal exchange between the two prior which may have preceded the heated altercation. Three balls after the incident, Ntuli threw the ball back at Ripon after bowling it, which the Bangladesh batter fended off. “This is extreme, this is unacceptable. Normally we see verbal altercations in a cricket field but we don’t often see a fight. Ntuli struck Ripon’s helmet at one point,” Nabil Kaiser, one of the on-air commentators, said, as quoted by ESPNcricinfo. As per the report, the match referee will submit reports of the incident to both the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) and Cricket South Africa (CSA), before official action is taken.
SC Bengaluru might move to CAS also if deprived of justice finally!
Sudeep Pakrashi: Sporting Club Bengaluru might also move to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), like Inter Kashi, if the team are ultimately relegated from the 2024-25 I-League. The Appeal Committee of the All India Football Federation has issued a stay order on the announcement of relegation for SC Bengaluru and Delhi FC from the I-League on Wednesday. Kishore S. Reddy, co-founder of the team revealed while speaking to Parallel Sports, “This is a different issue from the other complaints lodged to the AIFF disciplinary committee. Namdhari FC played an ‘illegal’ footballer in their match against us and the I-League rule-book clearly says that we deserve three points from the match.” SC Bengaluru finished with 21 points from 22 matches in the League 2024-25. With three points from the match against Namdhari FC, the team will come out of the relegation with 24 points while Aizawl FC which finished with 23 points will be relegated. Kishore is also surprised by the decision of the AIFF Disciplinary Committee regarding the issue. “We appealed to the Disciplinary Committee first and there, the committee in its decision only cautioned Namdhari FC to restrain them from doing a similar act of fielding an ‘illegal’ footballer in the future! How can a Disciplinary Committee take such a decision of cautioning only instead of following the I-League rule book?” Kishore sounded disappointed also about the AIFF’s lackluster attitude saying, “The clubs like us who are coming to Indian football with passion and formidable investments will think twice before joining Indian football in the future.”
