Bangladesh ace all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan has urged the cricketers not to take any corrupt approaches lightly, stating that this sort of mistake could ruin someone’s cricketing career.
Shakib was banned from cricket by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for two years, one year of that suspended, due to his failure to report corrupt approaches from the bookies. He claimed that he took the approach so lightly that he did not report this to the ICC and as a result, one year of his cricketing life has decayed.
ICC’s anti-corruption unit published evidence that he had been in contact with bookie Deepak Agarwal and exchanged whatsapp messages. Some of the messages were deleted from the conversation. Agarwal was later banned for two years by the ICC.
However his ban came to an end on October 29 and he is now ready to start cricket again. But for one year, he was away from cricket, which was not easy for him, said Shakib.
“I regret about the suspension I faced and I was repentant,” Shakib said while speaking in a Youtube video where he took questions from fans and journalists.
“I have got a great lesson of my life. I shouldn’t have made this mistake. So I would urge everyone not to make this kind of mistake. Whenever someone faces this kind of situation, whenever someone is approached, he should report it to the ICC.”
He went on to say: “Everyone should let anti-corruption officers know the matter. I think we are all well aware of the procedure because ICC is regularly updating us in this regard. So please don’t take it lightly.”
The ICC started the investigation of Shakib’s case even before the 2019 World Cup, the premier all-rounder of the world said. He spoke about how difficult it was to play cricket in such a mega event when he was being questioned by the ICC officers. The ICC however didn’t make this thing public but Shakib said he felt the heat.
“The investigation was going on for a long time as they were in contact with me and questioned regularly. It was an uncomfortable situation for me. It is not nice for a cricketer and it is not great to sleep on,” he said.
Still Shakib had an epic World Cup in which he broke several records and created record after record. He finished the World Cup with third highest 606 runs and also took 11 wickets, which made him the first cricketer in the cricket’s extravaganza to score 500 plus runs and take 10 plus wickets simultaneously.
“I thought nothing might happen as I wasn’t sure of the punishment. But it happened. I only knew about the punishment when you all knew about it. The investigation period wasn’t easier for me.”
But the record breaking performance in the World Cup wasn’t a response to the investigation, Shakib said.
“It had nothing to do with my World Cup performance. I could have been banned before the World Cup because the investigation began in November or December (2018). I never thought that I had to do well because of the investigation,” he remarked.
He rather credited the decision to allow him batting at No.3 for his success in the World Cup.
“I was desperate to do well in the World Cup because I didn’t do well in the previous World Cup. I thought it was not good for my reputation. So I had a target and I worked to get my target right. Batting at No. 3 was a suitable position for me, so I tried to maximise it,” he said.