Bangladesh’s Test and T20I captain, Shakib Al Hasan, has been banned by the International Cricket Council (ICC) from all forms of cricket for a duration of 2 years.
According to ESPN, a year of that sentence has been suspended after the all-rounder accepted charges of breaching the anti-corruption code of the ICC.
Shakib, who was earlier stopped from going to team practice by the ICC, was found guilty of not disclosing contact with bookies during the Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe T20I tri-series in January 2018.
If satisfied with his condition of suspension among other formalities, ICC will allow Shakib to resume international cricket from October 29, 2020.
Speaking on ICC‘s forum, Shakib said in his statement:
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. The ICC ACU is reliant on players to play a central part in the fight against corruption and I didn’t do my duty in this instance.
Alex Marshall, ICC’s General Manager – Integrity, spoke right after Shakib and responded by saying:
Shakib Al Hasan is a highly experienced international cricketer. He has attended many education sessions and knows his obligations under the Code. He should have reported each of these approaches. Shakib has accepted his errors and cooperated fully with the investigation. 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.
Apart from being a great servant of the game for his country, Shakib is also one of the most exciting players to watch outside the top 6 countries in international cricket.