Shakib al Hasan has informed the Bangladesh Cricket Board [BCB] of terminating his controversial brand endorsement contract with Betwinner News.
BCB president Nazmul Hasan informed this to one of the leading Bengali news outlets of the country. Shakib’s decision to dismiss relation with Betwinner News, a concern of Betwinner dot com – a betting and gambling platform- came after Nazmul on Thursday afternoon had said that the cricketer will not be part of Bangladesh cricket anymore if he remains involved with the betting organization.
“Yes, we have received a letter from Shakib where he has informed of terminating his contract with Betwinner,” informed Nazmul to the media on Thursday evening.
It is understood that Shakib also informed of removing his social media posts related to the Betwinner News, which is a surrogate promotion of betting and gambling website Betwinner.
BCB chief Nazmul informed he still wants to wait in declaring the squad for the Asia Cup T20 which was on hold due to Shakib issue and also for some injury concerns in the dressing room. The BCB had decided to name Shakib the captain the Bangladesh T20I team for Asia Cup and the ICC T20 World Cup before the issue with betting website was triggered.
“Many had told me to declare the team [for the Asia Cup] today [Thursday] after receiving the email. But I did not agree. He is coming to Dhaka tomorrow [Friday] and will meet me on Saturday. He will need to explain why he has created this chaos despite knowing everything. It is not possible to speak in details over phone so I want to speak to him one on one and then decide the needful,” said Nazmul.
Nazmul earlier on Thursday afternoon had made it clear that star all-rounder Shakin will not be part of Bangladesh cricket anymore if he doesn’t step out from his association with Betwinner.
Nazmul’s statement in another sense is that Shakib will be banned from Bangladesh cricket if he doesn’t cut-off his ties with Betwinner. BCB and Shakib has been in a standoff after the latter announced of his association with Betwinner News earlier this month.
Shakib initially tried to defend his stance citing legal reasons which could not stand to a rigid and strict position of BCB on the matter.