Bangladesh women’s cricket captain Nigar Sultana Joty has denied allegations of physically assaulting junior players, firing back at pacer Jahanara Alam’s claims and even taking a swipe at India’s Harmanpreet Kaur in the process.
The controversy erupted after Jahanara, currently based in Australia, alleged in an interview that Sultana had misbehaved with younger players and even hit some of them. Responding to the accusations, Sultana dismissed them as baseless and questioned why such complaints would surface now.
Joty in an interview with Daily Cricket 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 added, “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’s remark referenced Harmanpreet’s infamous outburst during India’s 2023 tour of Bangladesh, when the Indian captain smashed the stumps in anger after being given out leg-before, later calling the umpiring “pathetic” and mocking the hosts during the trophy ceremony.
Jahanara Alam makes huge claim
Jahanara claimed that junior players had reached out to her alleging they were struck by Sultana. Dismissing that version, Joty said if such an incident had actually occurred, players would have reported it to board officials instead of “phoning someone living abroad.”
She added,“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?"
