DHAKA: Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan was banned from all cricket for two years with one year of that suspended on Tuesday, after the star all-rounder was found to have breached the International Cricket Council’s Anti-Corruption code.

The ban came after Shakib ‘accepted three charges of breaching the ICC Anti-Corruption Code’, the sport’s governing body said in a statement.

These included failing to disclose to the ICC’s Anti-Corruption Unit full details of approaches or invitations made in relation to the Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe Tri-Series in January 2018 as well and a 2018 Indian Premier League match between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kings XI Punjab, it said.

The 32-year-old’s ban came as a blow to Bangladesh’s preparations for next month’s tour of India where the all-rounder was set to lead the team for a two-Test series and three Twenty20 Internationals.

Shakib, who has played 56 Tests, 206 One-day Internationals and 76 Twenty20 Internationals, is by far Bangladesh’s finest player, having topped the ICC all-rounder rankings in all three formats several times since 2009 and scored more than 11,000 runs and claimed over 500 wickets in all internationals.

He starred for the team during this year’s ICC 50-over World Cup in England, where he scored over 600 runs — the third-highest run-scorer with 606 in eight matches, including two hundreds and five fifties — and picked 11 wickets and was named player-of-the-tournament. During the mega event, he also became the fastest and only the fifth cricketer to reach 5,000 runs and 250 wickets in ODIs.

Shakib will be free to resume international cricket Oct 29, 2020 subject to him satisfying the conditions in respect of the suspended part of the sanction, the ICC said.

“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 was quoted as saying in the ICC statement. “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.”

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.”

There was no immediate comment from the country’s cricket authorities who were expected to name the teams for the India Tests and T20s on Wednesday.

But Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said that the country’s cricket board “will always be with Shakib and will help him in every way.” She said that while match-fixers often contact players, Shakib’s “mistake is that when he was contacted he didn’t give it too much importance. He didn’t inform... the ICC.”

Having grown up in a rural town west of the capital Dhaka, Shakib burst into the international scene after excelling in age-level cricket.

He is possibly Bangladesh’s most loved cricketer and only last week successfully led a brief strike by Bangladesh’s professional cricketers to press for better pay and benefits.

But this is not the first time the left arm orthodox spinner and left handed batsman has faced disciplinary actions.

In 2014, Shakib was suspended by the BCB from all cricket for six months following ‘serious misbehaviour’ with Bangladesh then head coach Chandika Hathurusingha, and for his altercation with a spectator during a ODI against India in Dhaka.

“He has a severe attitude problem, which is unprecedented in the history of Bangladesh cricket. We think that his behaviour is such that it’s directly impacting the team,” Bangladesh Cricket Board president Nazmul Hassan told reporters at that time.

Last week the BCB said they would also take legal action against Shakib for allegedly breaching his contract to sign a sponsorship deal with a top mobile phone operator.

Shakib inked the agreement with former national team sponsor Grameenphone for an undisclosed sum at a time when he was also leading the players’ strike.

Published in Dawn, October 30th, 2019