Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib-al Hasan found himself in trouble once again after the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) issued a show cause notice to him for making critical remarks about the national team during an interview with a local newspaper.
Shakib has been given until the weekend to give a reply on why he had spoken about Bangladesh’s poor performance in the World Twenty20.
Bangladesh won two and lost five of their matches, including one against lowly Hong Kong. After the team’s last match of the tournament, Shakib gave an interview to leading Bangla daily Prathom Aalo in which he made some strong comments.
In the interview, Shakib had apparently said that “it was a mistake on the part of BCB, fans as well as the media to expect that Bangladesh would perform well.”
The all-rounder had also said Bangladesh “should not play a home series for at least two years”, that he succeeded at the highest level despite the system and “Bangladeshi players can’t hit big sixes regularly as most of them have grown up eating only khichdi (a rice preparation with lentils) and not orange juice.”
BCB has sought an explanation from the player as to how he decided to speak to the media without taking the board’s permission and on top of that, make such comments.
An emergent meeting was held at BCB’s headquarters yesterday and president Nazmul Hasan informed the media about the latest development. The BCB has also sought reports from the support staff as to why the team’s campaign went awry.
Interestingly, BCB had suspended Shakib from three ODIs after a TV camera caught him making an obscene gesture sitting in the dressing room during an ODI against Sri Lanka. Shakib missed out on the first two matches of the recently held Asia Cup.
However with Bangladesh’s more limited talent pool, Shakib might not be handed out a harsh punishment. Simply because despite Bangladesh’s poor show, Shakib was their best performer scoring 186 runs in seven matches at the World T20, including a half-century against Australia and took eight wickets at an economy of under six runs per over.
In addition, he is now the only Bangladeshi player whose services are hired by T20 leagues across the world.
