[ad_1]
Bangladeshi cricketer Shakib Al Hasan was a top all-rounder of his time, with achievements rivalled only by his indiscipline and a brief political career under the country’s loathed former leader.
Shakib has been the driving force behind the team’s rise to international prominence, enticing fans with star transfers and scandals.
He remains the only player to top the International Cricket Council’s all-rounder list in all three formats.
Now 37, Shakib is still in great form – on Sunday, he took three wickets in the second innings to help Bangladesh beat Pakistan for the first time in a Test match.
The selectors tolerated his transgressions and occasional defiance, but as the price of sporting glory, in 2022 he was named the country’s greatest athlete by a prominent Bangladeshi sports journalist.
“There are two eras of cricket in Bangladesh: before Shakib Al Hasan and after,” veteran sports journalist Montu Kayser told AFP last year.
“It’s like the Nativity scene. He is the Jesus Christ of Bangladesh cricket.”
Shakib has faced many controversies in his career, but none has troubled him as much as his decision to contest the sham elections in January under authoritarian former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
A student-led uprising this month toppled Hasina, whose leaders fled to neighboring India.
The cricketer was playing in the T20 league in Canada when he lost his parliamentary post during the revolution. He has not been back home since then.
Shakib and dozens of members of Hasina’s Awami League have been charged with murder for their involvement in police killings of protesters.
Shakib has not spoken publicly about the case, but his teammates are supporting him.
Veteran batsman Mushfiqur Rahim said on Facebook this week: “As a teammate and a brother, I will be there for him in his difficult times.”
“I do not support the false allegations against him.”
– Stars emerge –
In 2006, at the age of 19, Shakib made his international debut as an all-round batsman against Zimbabwe.
In the following year’s World Cup, he scored a 50 against India in a David-and-Goliath victory that is still remembered by Bangladeshi fans. By then, he had become a star.
He qualified for the 2008 Test series by taking excellent figures of 7-36 against New Zealand.
Two years later, he led Bangladesh to a 4-0 home win over New Zealand, their first ODI series win against a leading nation in cricket.
Shakib faced captaincy pressure early in his career and was sacked after a poor performance on the 2011 tour against Zimbabwe.
By 2014, his relationship with the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) had hit its lowest point.
Shakib was banned from playing three ODIs by the Basel committee for his poor discipline, threatening a spectator with a bat and then making an obscene gesture to a television crew.
His ongoing dispute with coach Chandika Hathurusinghe and his decision to play in the Caribbean Premier League without the approval of the BCB led to his six-month ban.
The sanctions against Shakib were lifted early after he apologized and promised to “behave in a more mature manner.”
“Nothing is more painful than being away from cricket,” he said.
– ‘A lot of thorns’ –
Shakib scored a century and took 10 wickets in his comeback Test match against Zimbabwe, becoming the third cricketer after Imran Khan and Ian Botham to achieve this all-round achievement.
In 2017, he scored a century to help Bangladesh recover from a precarious 33-4 to beat New Zealand by five wickets in Cardiff.
Shakib reached his peak in the 2019 World Cup in England, where he scored 606 runs and took 11 wickets, setting an all-round record in the tournament.
But he also continued to attract controversy.
In 2019, when Shakib led a players’ strike demanding higher wages, the International Cricket Council banned him for two years for failing to report corruption by bookmakers.
Soon after his return, he was again named Test and Twenty20 captain, but in 2022 the BCB forced him to give up his partnership with offshore betting sites.
The following year, he was the guest of honor at the opening of a boutique jewelry store in Dubai, even though Bangladeshi police told him it was owned by a fugitive accused of murder.
Kaiser compares Shakib to “a king with many thorns in his crown.”
“But,” he added, “the thorns can’t stop him from ruling his world.”
[ad_2]
Source link
