Follow UsBangladesh Women's captain Nigar Sultana Joty has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. Her teammate Jahanara Alam had recently accused her of physically assaulting her teammates, including many junior players on the side.
However, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has stood behind their skipper, dismissing such allegations. Joty has finally responded for the first time since these allegations surfaced.
“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," Joty said in an interview with Daily Cricket, as per Hindustan Times
"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,” she added.
Harmanpreet had smashed the wickets after she was given out leg before during India's tour of Bangladesh in 2023. She called the umpiring pathetic and even asked the umpires to share the series trophy, as they played a huge role in it.
Joty feels that if what Jahanara claims to be true, the juniors would have reported to the senior officials instead of ringing someone who is based out of Australia.
“The way I’ve been described in front of everyone — I’m not that kind of girl at all. First, I heard that Jahanara apa has made an allegation about me, saying that someone called her in Australia and said, ‘Please save us, Jyoti apa 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?" she questioned.
"What I mean is, if this player had a problem, why would she call Jahanara api all the way in Australia? She could’ve shared it with anyone here,” Joty added.
Under Joty, Bangladesh finished seventh on the points table in the recently-concluded Women's World Cup, winning just one of their seven matches.