South Africa Test captain Dean Elgar defended his team against allegations of sledging on Thursday. The allegations were made during the first Test of the Proteas against Bangladesh in Durban. The skipper spoke ahead of the second Test match at St George's Park on Friday that his team was accused sledging in the last match.
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Elgar said that he and his team was playing hard but stopped short of swearing at their opponents. "I don't think they are justified whatsoever. We play the game hard, if anything we were just giving back what we were getting when we were batting. This is Test cricket. It's a man's environment when it comes to playing at this level and I intend still to play the game hard."
Bangladesh cricket operations chief Jalal Yunus said that his board will make an official complaint to the ICC about the biased umpiring and the sledging of their team.
The captain also said that the Bangladesh team needs to "harden up". The journey of test cricket is hard and they need to prepare for tough clashes in Test cricket. "We don't swear or use foul language towards the Bangladesh batsmen because we still respect them. I think they need to harden up and maybe play the game at a level they're not used to."
I honestly didn't see any bad sledging out there: Elgar in the press conference
Elgar left a message to his players too. "We do everything with dignity and we don't throw our badge or our name away. "I honestly didn't see any bad sledging out there, even from their side. I just think this is Test cricket and we need to dry our eyes sometimes."
The umpiring during the match was striking; there were 21 reviews in total; 11 by Bangladesh and 10 by South Africa. The Bangladeshi team called for neutral umpires as Marais Erasmus and Adrian Holdstock of South Africa were in charge under the ICC's coronavirus restrictions.
Dean Elgar further added, "The umpiring was tough. I don't think the wicket helped. There was variable bounce which can challenge the umpires. I feel for them because they are good umpires. The human factor needs to be spoken of, they do make errors, as do the players, but I'm pretty sure they're going to learn a lot out of that. The umpires make decisions and we need to respect that. The technology is there for a reason. If you don't use the technology you're kind of holding yourself accountable for their decisions as well."
His physical condition during the online press conference was poor. His face was bruised and he had stitches above his right eye. He shared that this happened on Monday night in Durban after slipping in the shower. "I've got a few stitches in my forehead," he said. "I batted today, it was going to be a concern with where my helmet rests. I don't think I'm too far from where the doctor takes the stitches out. But I'm okay."
