Shakib raring to return to action as the last day of his ban goes by

The Tigers’ ace in the hole Shakib Al Hasan will see out his ban on Thursday after which he will be able to officially participate in all things cricket, capping Bangladesh cricket’s long wait to see the southpaw in action.

The International Cricket Council or ICC had banned Shakib for two years, including one year of suspended sanction, for his failure to report “corrupt approaches on numerous occasions”.

The game’s global governing body said he would be free to resume international cricket on Oct 29, 2020 subject to him satisfying the conditions in respect of the suspended part of the sanction.

Shakib was the Test and Twenty20 captain of the Tigers during the suspension and had just led the players’ strike demanding a pay hike of domestic cricketers a week before that.

With Shakib out of action, the men in green and red struggled in all the series, barring the one against Zimbabwe.

Coming just days after the three-day strike, the news of his ban sent a shockwave through Bangladesh cricket as the ICC said the top allrounder had accepted three charges of breaching the ICC Anti-Corruption Code.

According to the code, failing to report an ‘approach’ or corrupt conduct to the ACU is a ‘serious breach’ of the code.

The cricketers are reminded of this before each series, tournament, franchise events and classes are also given classes on the matter. The breaches can result in a ban stretching from 6 months to 5 years depending on the degree of offence.

Alex Marshall, ICC General Manager - Integrity, had said: “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.”

In a conversation with Harsha Bhogle on Cricbuzz in June this year, 33-year-old Shakib said, "I took the approaches too casually."

"When I met the anti-corruption guy and told them and they knew everything. Gave them all the evidence and they knew everything that happened... To be honest, that's the only reason I was banned for a year, otherwise I'd have been banned for five or 10 years," he added on the ICC's investigation.

""But I think that was a silly mistake I made. Because with my experience and the amount of international matches I've played and the amount of ICC's anti-corruption code of conduct classes I took, I shouldn't have made that decision [to not report], to be honest.

“I regret that. And I think no one should take such messages or calls (from bookies) lightly or leave it away... We must inform the ICC ACSU guy to be on the safe side and that's the lesson I learnt, and I think I learnt a big lesson," he told Cricbuzz.

Shakib was in the country for the initial few months of his ban before flying to the United States to be with his wife and child following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. He was blessed with a second child, a girl this April. He spent five and a half months there and flew back to the country on Sep 2 to prepare for his return to the field.

The facilities of the Bangladesh Cricket Board was no longer an option for him due to the ban, so Shakib chose to train at Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protishtan or BKSP, where he had the foundation of becoming the great he is today, under the supervision of his mentors Mohammad Salahuddin and Nazmul Abedeen Fahim. BKSP’s trainers, including athletics and boxing coaches, also aided him in maintaining form.

Shakib was supposed to officially return to action in the second Test of the Tigers’ tour of Sri Lanka. Following the suspension of the series, Shakib flew to the US again and continued his training there.

A few days ago, BCB President Nazmul Hassan confirmed that Shakib would take to the field in BCB’s Twenty20 tournament next month. He is due to return to Bangladesh in the first week of November.

The Tigers’ South African Head Coach Russell Domingo said that the whole team, including Russell himself, was quite thrilled about the prospect of getting him back.

The halt in sporting activities due to the pandemic may have been a blessing in disguise for the Bangladesh cricket team as the team was supposed to play the highest number of Test matches in a year in 2020, most of which Shakib would have had to sit out.

The Asia Cup and 2020 World T20 were scheduled in this period as well but both the tournaments have been postponed over the virus crisis, meaning Shakib missed out on four Tests, three ODIs and seven T20Is this year.

In the interview with Harsha Bhogle, Shakib said the ban had changed his outlook on retirement. He was thinking to retire after a couple of years, but now he plans to keep playing for another three to five years.