Bangladesh stalwart Shakib Al Hasan on Wednesday regretted the mistake for what he had to be banned for a tenure of two-year by the International Cricket Council (ICC).
He came up with the disclosure in a recent interaction with Indian commentator Harsha Bhogle. Shakib talked about many aspects of his life, including the ban during the interaction.
However, the world governing body of cricket immediately suspended a year of the two-year ban enabling the start all-rounder to come back to international cricket after October this year.
While talking over the issue during the long conversation, Shakib said he would have been banned for a longer period unless he helped the anti-corruption unit of ICC.
“I had taken the texts of the bookies too casually. Of course, I don’t want to discuss everything here on this platform. To be honest, I helped ICC’s anti-corruption unit as much as possible, and maybe, this is the only reason behind a two-year ban (with one year is suspended),” he said.
Shakib said he could have been suspended for more years for the mistake. “I would have been banned for five to 10 years. I regret that mistake what I have made. I want to say that no one should take calls or messages from strangers lightly,” Shakib told to Harsha.
The ban was imposed on Shakib due to his failure to report several corrupt approaches to a responsible authority. Both the Bangladesh Cricket Board and ICC had no idea about those approaches which were made to Shakib.
The star all-rounder, who scored more than six hundred runs and bagged more than 10 wickets in the World Cup 2019, also said Bangladesh became a better team than they were before. He said Bangladesh team and the supporters are reluctant to lose even a single game against any opponent these days.
In the past two-three years, Bangladesh went to very close to win some historic matches against India. But unfortunately, they couldn’t touch the finishing line due to lack of good effort at the end of the game. But they kept showing courage and insistence to beat the big teams. Harsha opened his heart to praise Bangladesh. Shakib agreed to him as well.
“We need that character to fight against the big teams like India. I think it’s a good thing that we are now harder and tougher team. We want to fight and pose a challenge for the big teams. It’s a good transformation. Our supporters have also changed. They want us to win every time when we play against India. I believe it’s good for the game, but obviously, to a certain level,” Shakib added.
In the last Under-19 World Cup, Bangladeshi teenagers proved why the country is considered as one of the strongest cricket nations for the future. They beat India in the eventful final of the Under-19 World Cup to win their maiden World Cup. Harsha said it was surprising to see Bangladesh team showing the extra level of guts.
Shaking replied saying: “It’s required to have that mentality to become a good cricket team. Every generation has some characters who always want to win a game, who always want to fight. I think we will have a good bunch of cricketers from this U-19 team. It’s a great change.”
However, Bangladesh failed to do well in the last World Cup against India when they lost by 28 runs despite the fifties from Shakib (66) and Mohammad Saifuddin (51).
Bangladesh also have a hurtful memory of losing a T20 World Cup game against India in 2016 when they went too close but failed just for two runs. Shakib remembered the game saying that memory still comes to their mind when they go close to finish a game.
“When we go so close to win a game, the memory of T20 World Cup (2016) match against India still comes back haunting. That defeat still gives us a lot of shocks. It also gives us a lesson that it’s not finished until it really finished. We don’t celebrate before we finish our work now,” Shakib further told to Harsha.
When Shakib is passing time off the field, Bangladesh’s four series have been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The series against Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and a part of Pakistan will now take place in future. However, it will require a massive change in the Future Tour Plan of the ICC.UNB
