Nidahas Trophy 2018 was won by India in which Dinesh Karthick’s gave his career best performance which might be a lasting memory for fans, but the tournament had gained much attention in the previous match of the T20 tri-series. One of the biggest talking points from the tri-nation T20 series had nothing to do with the gentleman’s game.

Hosts Sri Lanka and Bangladesh played a thrilling ‘virtual semi-final’ at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo. Mahmudullah’s last ball heroics saw his team through to the final, however, the match will be remembered for the ugly scenes just before and after the tense finish.

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When some Bangladeshi substitute players engaged in a verbal duel with Sri Lanka’s Kusal Mendis, Shakib Al Hasan, the Bangladesh skipper standing near the boundary, angrily told his players to come off the field. As if the shoving and finger-pointing wasn’t enough, the glass door in the Bangladeshi dressing room was found shattered after the match.

According to Sri Lankan newspaper The Island, match referee Chris Broad spoke to the caterers after the game to find the person responsible for the dressing room incident. The CCTV footage was rather inconclusive but reports suggest that the working staff said that Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hasan forcefully pushed the door causing the damage.

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Shakib was later fined 25 per cent of his match fee and was also awarded one demerit point by the International Cricket Council. Bangladesh reserve Nurul Hasan, who was part of the on field altercation, pleaded guilty to unruly behaviour and was also fined 25 per cent of his match fee and awarded one demerit point.

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Broad in his ruling said, “I understand that it was… tense and an edge-of-the-seat match with (a) place in the final on the line, but the actions of the two players were unacceptable and cannot be condoned as they clearly went overboard. Had the fourth umpire not stopped Shakib and the fielders remonstrating, and then the on-field umpires not intervened between Nurul and Thisara, things could have become worse.”