Bangladesh women's cricket team captain Nigar Sultana Joty has been in hot waters over allegations of physical assault on junior players. The allegations were levelled by pacer Jahanara Alam who claims players called her up and told her about the assaults. Responding to the allegations, Sultana took India's World Cup 2025-winning captain Harmanpreet Kaur, referring to when she hit the stumps with her bat.
“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," Sultana said in an interview with Daily Cricket.
"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.
‘Why would she call Jahanara all the way in Australia?’
While Jahanara said that junior cricketers called her up after alleged assaults, Bangladesh captain said that they would have informed the team management, manager or coaching staff instead. She pointed out that Jahanara is living in Australia and her teammates would not have called someone in a different country to talk about their issues.
“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?" she questioned.
"What I mean is, if this player had a problem, why would she call Jahanara apu all the way in Australia? She could’ve shared it with anyone here,” the 28-year-old added.
Bangladesh show character but lack experience in close games
Bangladesh finished seventh on the points table in the ICC Women's World Cup 2025. Bangladesh put teams under pressure but lost grasp over games in crunch situations. Out of seven games, they managed to win just one.
Sultana's only notable knock came against Sri Lanka. Her 77-run knock went in vain as Sri Lanka caused a collapse and won by seven runs.