No Harmanpreet, not the umpires, what was ‘pathetic’ was how you conducted yourself

There's an old adage that goes, 'When life gives you lemons, make lemonade'. 

Unfortunately for India Women's team skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, lemons seem to make her life sour.

The incident took place in the 34th over of the second innings when Bangladesh's Nahida Akter took the wicket of Kaur and she reacted viciously by hitting the stumps with her bat. 

She then proceeded to mouth off at the on-field umpire and gave a sarcastic thumbs-up to the crowd that came to watch the match while walking back. 

While her reaction after being dismissed would have made headlines, she took things up a notch in the post-match presentation after Bangladesh tied the match and the ODI series. 

There she told the post-match presenter Samannoy Ghosh that the umpiring was 'pathetic'.

"The kind of umpiring that was happening we were very surprised. The next time we come to Bangladesh we will make sure we have to deal with this type of umpiring and prepare ourselves accordingly," she added. 

She was not once asked about the umpiring but went on to drive home the point that the umpiring was biased.

She then went on to criticise the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) for not having the Indian High Commissioner, Pranay Kumar Verma, who was present at the ground, on the stage with the other dignitaries and officials.

"Our high commissioner from India is also there - I hope you could have also invited him here, but that's also fine."

That only got worse once Harmanpreet told the broadcaster Samannoy after the post-match interview that the umpires should be up there with the players for the trophy celebration as they deserve it and they're the real winners. 

While this wasn't on record those at the presentation ceremony noticed the incident. 

Harmanpreet's antics didn't stop there though.

During the photo session in the presentation where both teams and captains were present with the trophy, she made a comment which caused Bangladesh team skipper Nigar Sultana to tell her team to walk away from taking any further photos with the Indian team.

Later in the post-match press conference, she was asked about the incident and Nigar said: "It is totally her problem. I have nothing to do with it." 

While Nigar chose not to tell what Harmanpreet said, she felt it was not right for her team to be there anymore. 

"As a player, she could have shown better manners. I can't tell you what happened, but it didn't feel right to be there (for the photograph) with my team. It wasn't the right environment. That's why we went back. Cricket is a game of discipline and respect."

Umpiring decisions being under the spotlight during Bangladesh versus India matches is nothing new, unfortunately.

From the 2015 World Cup quarterfinal to even the Emerging Asia Cup semifinal on Friday, there have been decisions that have caused fans to question the quality of umpiring with many decisions going against Bangladesh.

But to see a player - that too the captain of a national team - react in such a manner is unheard of almost.

Generally in football, we see that if the manager or player decides to criticise the referee in such a manner, they get fined at the very least and even given a ban. 

It remains to be seen what the ICC, BCCI and BCB will do about this situation.

But BCB Director Shafiul Alam Chowdhury Nadel, who was part of the presentation ceremony and watched it all unfold in front of his very eyes later told the media that they would take the issue of the umpiring to the ICC after hearing the report from the match referee Akhtar Ahmed. 

Instead of celebrating what was an enthralling finale to a closely contested and end-to-end series, Harmanpreet has managed to ruin the spirit between the two sides (the captains at least) and end things on a sour note.