HYDERABAD: The Gachibowli stadium turned into a virtual battle field during the Junior Hockey Asia Cup semifinal between India and Pakistan when players from both the teams clashed, following an alleged unsportsmanlike behavior by Muhammad Irfan of the visiting side.
Irfan, who suffered nose injury during the fracas and was sent outside the ground after showing a yellow card, roughly tackled Mandeep Antil when the Indian was looking dangerous in the opponent's 'D' area towards the end of the first session with the hosts leading 1-0 in the crucial match. Irfan allegedly raised his stick against Antil but teammate Gurwinder Singh Chandi took a strong exception to it and heated argument followed.
Chaos started when players of both the teams rushed to the spot and began pushing each other and exchanged blows. The match was stopped for a few minutes and it was only after the umpires and other officials' intervention that the situation was prevented from turning out of hands.
The umpires called both the captains -- Shafqat Rasool of Pakistan and India's Gurbaj Singh -- to discuss the violent incident and warned them. India won 3-0 in the match which resumed with a reduced Pakistani team of 10 members.
Indian coach A K Bansal described the incident as unfortunate. "It was unfortunate. Whether it was Pakistan or us, it should not have happened," he said adding that the behavior of the players reflected as if a school match was going on.
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