Cricket is no longer gentleman's game, claims Kapil Dev after U-19 World Cup final fracas

Former Indian World Cup-winning captain Kapil Dev was extremely upset with the behavior of the Indian and Bangladeshi players after the conclusion of the U-19 World Cup final. Some of the Bangladesh players were too expressive with their reaction to their team's victory, which almost led to an on-field brawl between some of the players belonging to the two teams.

"Who's saying cricket is a gentleman's game? It's not the gentleman's game, it was!" Kapil Dev was quoted as saying by PTI.

Two Indian players - Akash Singh and Ravi Bishnoi - and three Bangladeshi players - Md Towhid Hridoy, Shamim Hossain, and Rakibul Hasan - were found guilty of breaching the ICC Code of Conduct.

Dev believed that a strong example needed to be set so that such mistakes would never happen again and thus urged the BCCI to take strong steps against the accused.

"What happened between those young people I think it was horrible. The cricket boards should take hard steps today so that tomorrow these types of mistakes do not happen," Kapil opined.

He also questioned the team manager's presence in the situation, stating that it was his responsibility to intervene and stop the on-field spat between the players.

"You lost the match, you have no right to go back to the ground and fight with anybody. Come back. You should give more blame to the captain, manager and the people who were sitting outside. Sometimes, if you are an 18-year-old boy, he doesn't understand. But if you're a manager, that's your responsibility to take care of the situation," he asserted.