Star Bangladeshi player and Test and T20I captain Shakib Al Hasan is currently facing a huge proposition of not only missing out on India tour after he has missed practice sessions; but as per local media, may also be banned for 18 months after failing to report a corrupt approach.
Now Shakib may also be axed from the team if words of BCB president Nazmul Hassan are to be believed. According to the country’s leading Bengali daily ‘Samakal’, the International Cricket Council (ICC) has asked the team to keep Shakib away from practice ahead of their India tour this month and the player now could be suspended for 18 months by the governing body.
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“If we don’t find a satisfactory answer for this, then he won’t get any more chances. It has to be something really convincing. Let’s see. It’s one more day,” BCB president Hassan was quoted as saying by Bangladesh daily The Daily Star.
Shakib Al Hasan spearheaded the players’ strike against BCB for not addressing their issues and though the strike was called off after talks, he has not attended the pre-tour camp, including a practice game, in Mirpur.
“Everything is murky. If someone doesn’t want to go, there is no issue if they communicate early. There is a kind of feeling of being indispensable within the team. Attitude has to be right. This [attitude] was not there before. There may be a logical reason and I will see to those later. Right now, my concern is the India tour. I am not worried about the pipeline. We have many players,” he further added.
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The President also revealed that he has asked the coach to look for replacement players. “I have told the coach to look at two players for this series. [To] play one in the T20s and the other in a Test. We have to look at players or how will we play the World Cup ahead? We have to give exposure until the World Cup,” the president said.
He also talked about Shakib criticizing the pitch on which Afghanistan defeated Bangladesh in the one-off Test match. “I don’t know if they were telling the truth. I am now investigating that, just to know. Most of them said that Shakib chose the pitch himself. After the first day, I saw Shakib’s interview where he said that “I haven’t seen a worse pitch in my life”. I was shocked. Everyone said that Shakib had chosen this pitch. I don’t know what was happening. Either everyone is lying or what Shakib said is not right. So I am looking for an answer and running an independent search,” he said.
(IANS inputs)
