“They were hurling abuse at us”

South Africa's Sarel Erwee sledging Ebadot Hossain on Day 5 of the first Test at the Kingsmead Stadium in Durban on Monday.AFP

Bangladesh Test skipper Mominul Haque has accused the South African team of verbally abusing his team during the first Test of the two-match series at the Kingsmead Stadium in Durban.

In an online press conference after the match, Mominul said that sledging is common in cricket but the South African team crossed the limits in the first Test.

“There is always some sledging on the cricket field. That’s natural. But when people start hurling abuses in the name of sledging, that’s very bad. I felt that they were hurling terrible abuses at us. The umpires didn’t really notice it.”

The Bangladesh camp was particularly unhappy on how the umpires handled the matter as they seemingly turned a deaf ear to the behaviour of the South African players.

Tamim Iqbal, who did not play in the first Test owing to illness, confronted the on-field umpires Marais Erasmus and Adrian Holdstock on the matter after the fourth day’s play.

Bangladesh also were in the receiving end of some bad decisions in the match. Bangladesh team director Khaled Mahmud had called for the return of neutral umpires in Tests. Mominul echoed him in the press conference on Monday.

“I think the ICC should think about it. They should bring back neutral umpires (in Tests) like it used to be in before Covid. Due to Covid, it couldn’t be done. But now Covid is under control. They should bring back neutral umpires. Not just this series, in many series this (umpiring errors) has occurred.”