Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan addresses a press convention on the eve of second check match at Inexperienced Park stadium, in Kanpur on September 26, 2024.
| Photograph Credit score: Sandeep Saxena
Bangladesh cricketer Shakib Al Hasan is the main all-rounder of his period, whose laundry checklist of achievements is rivalled solely by his disciplinary infractions and his temporary political profession underneath his nation’s loathed ex-leader.
Shakib, who introduced his worldwide retirement on Thursday (September 26, 2024), was the driving power of his group’s rise to turn into severe worldwide contenders, enthralling followers via each star turns and scandals.
The 37-year-old stays the one participant to have topped the Worldwide Cricket Council all-rounder rankings in all three codecs concurrently.
Selectors have tolerated his transgressions and occasional defiance as the value of sporting glories that in 2022 noticed him named his nation’s biggest athlete by eminent Bangladeshi sports activities journalists.
“Cricket in Bangladesh is split into two eras: earlier than and after Shakib Al Hasan,” veteran sports activities reporter Montu Kayser informed AFP final yr.
“It’s like earlier than and after Christ. He’s the Jesus Christ of Bangladesh cricket.”
Of the various controversies in Shakib’s profession, none have dogged him like his determination to contest sham elections in January underneath autocratic ex-premier Sheikh Hasina.
A student-led rebellion ousted Hasina final month, with the chief fleeing the nation for neighbouring India.
The cricketer was in Canada taking part in in a T20 league as he misplaced his lawmaker job in the course of the revolution. He has not returned house since.
Together with dozens extra members of Hasina’s Awami League, a homicide case has been filed towards Shakib that accuses him of culpability within the police killing of protesters.
Shakib has not spoken publicly concerning the case, however his teammates have rallied round him.
“As a teammate and a brother, I might be there throughout his robust occasions,” veteran batsman Mushfiqur Rahim stated on Fb final month.
“I don’t help the false allegations made towards him.”
Star emerges
Shakib made his worldwide debut aged simply 19 in 2006, as a batting all-rounder towards Zimbabwe.
He had already turn into a star by the point he hit a fifty towards India within the following yr’s World Cup in a David-and-Goliath victory nonetheless spoken of reverentially by Bangladesh followers.
His exceptional 7-36 in a dropping effort towards New Zealand sealed his Check spot in 2008.
Two years later he led Bangladesh to their first ODI collection win over a number one cricket nation, with a 4-0 house sweep of New Zealand.
Shakib struggled underneath the stress of the captaincy so early in his profession, and was sacked after a disappointing tour of Zimbabwe in 2011.
By 2014, his relationship with the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) reached its lowest ebb.
Shakib’s ill-discipline had seen him threaten a spectator with a bat. He then made a lewd gesture to a tv crew and was banned by the BCB for 3 ODIs.
A working dispute with coach Chandika Hathurusinghe and a call to compete within the Caribbean Premier League with out BCB clearance led to a six-month suspension.
Shakib’s sanction was lifted early after apologising and pledging to “behave in a extra mature method”.
“Nothing will be extra painful than staying away from cricket,” he stated.
‘Many thorns’
Shakib scored a century and took 10 wickets in his comeback Check towards Zimbabwe, turning into solely the third cricketer to realize the all-round feat after Imran Khan and Ian Botham.
In 2017, he scored a century to bail out Bangladesh from a precarious 33-4 to a exceptional five-wicket win over New Zealand in Cardiff.
Shakib reached his pinnacle on the 2019 World Cup in England, the place he made 606 runs and claimed 11 wickets, an all-rounder document for the match.
However he additionally continued to court docket controversy.
Whereas Shakib was main a gamers’ strike for higher pay in 2019, the ICC slapped him with a two-year ban for failing to report corrupt approaches by bookmakers.
Quickly after his return, he was once more named Check and Twenty20 skipper, however in 2022 the BCB compelled him to desert a partnership with an offshore betting website.
The next yr he was a visitor on the opening of a boutique jeweller in Dubai, regardless of Bangladeshi police informing him the shop’s proprietor was a fugitive accused of homicide.
Kayser likened Shakib to a “king with many thorns in his crown”.
“However,” he added, “the thorns can’t cease him from ruling his world”.
Printed – September 26, 2024 03:09 pm IST
