Bangladesh’s Shakib banned for corruption
Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan has been banned from all cricket for two years, one of them suspended, for failing to report “approaches he received to engage in corrupt conduct”.
The prolific run-scorer and top all-rounder in the International Cricket Council’s one-day international rankings has accepted three charges of breaching the ICC’s Anti-Corruption code.
Shakib, 32, has played 56 Tests, 206 one-day internationals and 76 Twenty20 internationals for Bangladesh, scoring more than 11,000 runs and claiming over 500 wickets across the three formats.
At the 2019 Cricket World Cup he finished as third-highest run-scorer with 606 in eight matches, including two hundreds and five fifties.
The ICC said on Tuesday Shakib failed to report two approaches during a tri-series involving Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe and another over a Sunrisers Hyderabad-Kings XI Punjab Indian Premier League game in 2018.
“I am obviously extremely sad to have been banned from the game I love but I completely accept my sanction for not reporting the approaches,” Shakib said.
“Like the majority of players and fans around the world, I want cricket to be a corruption free sport and I am looking forward to working with the ICC (Anti-Corruption Unit) team to support their education program and ensure young players don’t make the same mistake I did.”
Shakib led a strike by Bangladeshi cricketers, called off a week ago when the country’s cricket board accepted most of their demands including pay rises and other benefits.
BCB president Nazmul Hassan said the board was “shocked and extremely disappointed” such an experienced player repeatedly failed to report corrupt approaches.
“We hope he will come back as a better and wiser cricketer and serve Bangladesh for many more years when his sanction will be over,” he added.
“During the suspension the BCB will continue to support his efforts at returning to cricket.”
Mominul Haque has been appointed Test captain, while all-rounder Mahmudullah will lead the T20 squad for the upcoming tour of India.
Spinner Taijul Islam replaces Shakib in the T20 squad with Bangladesh to face India in three T20 matches starting Sunday.
-AAP