National all-rounder Shakib al Hasan’s overseas league ban has finally been lifted by Bangladesh Cricket Board president Nazmul Hasan. Nazmul announced this decision upon his arrival at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport yesterday.
“As I have previously informed, I would have announced the decision after my arrival. This is an important issue which we took after talking with everyone. We never had any questions over his performances. I would like to clarify to all of you that Shakib is one of our best players and even the best cricketer in the world,” Nazmul told the media.
“Not only Shakib, others too had such attitude problems. The main allegation against him was his attitude towards his team mates, fans and the others. Keeping everything in mind we had to take strict action against Shakib.
“However, we have observed that he had a good response after the suspension was reduced. He is now very mature and is bringing changes to his attitude, which we are very pleased to witness. And things have even changed amongst his team mates who informed me that they get inspiration from Shakib. It clearly shows he has changed his approach towards his team mates.
“What we have observed is that he is a good human being and there are lots of changes in him which we are very happy to observe.
“And today (yesterday) I am very happy to inform you all that we are lifting the ban over his participation from overseas leagues.
“However, I would like to inform that we will not tolerate any sort of indiscipline.
“Our job is not to punish the cricketers. What we want to do is to guide the cricketers towards a good path that will eventually improve the performance of the team,” he said.
Shakib was earlier handed out a six-month ban from all forms of cricket owing to indiscipline. His six-month ban, given out on July 7, was then reduced to three months. And since his return, Shakib has performed heroics for the national side guiding the Tigers to a clean sweep at home over Zimbabwe in both the Test and ODI series.
Following the uplifting of his overseas league ban, Shakib will now feature in the Big Bash league in Australia.