Dubai: Less than four months back, Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan was the flavour of the ICC World Cup — raking up a staggering 606 runs in eight group matches apart from claiming 11 wickets. However, his world came crashing down on Tuesday when he was banned from all forms of the game by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for two years — one of which is suspended — on charges of failing to inform the ICC of approaches for corrupt conduct on three occasions.
“The ban will be reduced to one year if he adheres to certain conditions and he will be free to resume international cricket on October 29, 2020,” said sources in the ICC. This, however, rules him out of the upcoming series against India as well as the next T20 World Cup, which starts on October 18 in Australia.
The timing of the ban could not have been worse for Hasan, who had in the recent weeks, become the face of a stand-off between the senior national team players and the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) in the wake of a strike threat by the players. The strike was later averted but BCB supremo Nazmul Hassan made no bones about his ire about the player, accusing him of “indiscipline” for not taking part in a pre-tour camp and warm-up game.
Caught on the backfoot, Shakib said in a statement: “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.
“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 ACU (Anti-Corruption Unit) team to support their education programme and ensure young players don’t make the same mistake I did,” he added.
Alex Marshall, the ICC General Manager Integrity, said: “Shakib had attended many education sessions and knew his obligations under the code.
“Shakib has accepted his errors and cooperated fully with the investigation,” Marshall said. “He has offered to assist the integrity unit in future education, to help younger players to learn from his mistakes. I am happy to accept this offer.”
The ICC said that the player did not report two approaches he received during a tri-series between Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe in January 2018 and one more over a 2018 Indian Premier League match between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kings XI Punjab. Shakib has become a fall guy with the episode, but such incidents highlight the fact that bookies are still very much active in both the international arena and the franchise leagues.
The all-rounder has played 56 Tests, 206 ODIs and 76 T20s for Bangladesh. He has scored more than 11,000 runs and claimed over 500 wickets across three formats.
Shakib’s three breaches
(Article 2.4.4)
* Failure to disclose to the ACU full details of any approaches or invitations he received to engage in Corrupt Conduct — in relation to the Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe Tri-Series in January 2018 and/or the 2018 IPL
* Failure to disclose to the ACU full details of any approaches or invitations he received to engage in Corrupt Conduct — in relation to a second approach in respect of the Tri-Series in January 2018
* Failure to disclose to the ACU full details of any approaches or invitations he received to engage in Corrupt Conduct — in relation to an IPL 2018 match between Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Kings XI Punjab on April 26, 2018.
— With inputs from agencies
