South Africa captain Dean Elgar has shot down accusations of “unfair sledging” against his team by Bangladesh, hitting back by saying that the visitors need to “harden up” to play the game “at a level they’re not used to”.

The first Test was marred by controversy over the on-field umpiring, leading to calls from within the Bangladesh setup for the ICC to install neutral umpires. On April 4, Jalal Yusuf, the BCB cricket operations chief, confirmed that the board had officially lodged a complaint regarding umpiring, and was also looking to file another to address the “deplorable” sledging from the hosts that they felt the umpires failed to address.

Elgar, speaking to reporters ahead of the second Test between the two sides, maintained that there was no “bad sledging” from the hosts, saying that Test cricket is “a man’s environment” and that Bangladesh needed to harden up.

“I don’t think they are justified whatsoever,” said Elgar. “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.

“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. 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.”

Elgar admitted that umpiring for Marius Erasmus and Adrian Holdstock was “tough” in the first Test.

“The umpiring was tough,” Elgar said. “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.”