Last Updated on 4 years by Charbel Coorey
Shakib Al Hasan will resume cricket from October 29 after observing a year-long ban from ICC’s Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU). The former Bangladesh captain was accused of being involved with an alleged bookie Deepak Aggarwal. ACU had found that Aggarwal had contacted Shakib three times for confidential information and during the investigation, and Shakib had admitted that he was approached by him on January 23 and August 27 2018.
“During these interviews, Mr Al Hasan was cautioned that the answers and information provided by him could be used as evidence to support a charge or charges in relation to a breach of the Code, if they revealed that Mr Al Hasan might have breached the Code, either by acting corruptly himself or by failing to report corrupt approaches or corrupt actions by others. After receiving these cautions, Mr Al Hasan admitted various failures to report approaches made to him to provide Inside Information to Mr Aggarwal,” the ICC said in a statement last year.
In an interaction with ESPNCricinfo, Mahmudullah Riyad said that the national team is extremely happy to welcome back the player. The all-rounder who was consistently ICC’s no.1 in all three formats of the game for a decade, is reportedly spending some quality time with his family in America. He was ranked as the second-most valuable player of the century according to Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack.
“Our boy is coming back home, which makes me very happy. We know that Shakib has been the best player for so many years, for the Bangladesh cricket team. We are all eagerly waiting for his return to the dressing room. It feels good to know that we can see him, talk to him and spend time with him,” Mahmudullah told ESPNcricinfo.
“Shakib is a champion player. I think it won’t take him long to get back to rhythm. I believe that he will get it back as soon as he enters the cricket field. The biggest thing is that we can fill up the gap that his absence had created. He always makes important contributions with the bat and ball,” the T20I captain added.
Written by Anjali Jha. Follow Anjali on Twitter today.
