Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib al Hasan has encouraged the other players to learn from his mistakes which saw him get banned from competitive cricket for one year.
Shakib accepted three charges last October of breaching the International Cricket Council anti-corruption code, for failing to report corrupt approaches in two tournaments in 2018.
After serving his one-year ban, dished out by the ICC, he will be free to return to international cricket from October 29, 2020.
In a video interview with cricket-based online website ESPNcricinfo, Shakib admitted that he made mistakes and that the other cricketers should learn from it and be aware of their actions.
“I think you have to be honest. You just can’t lie to the people and pretend different things. Whatever happened has happened. People are bound to make mistakes. You are not 100%. So you can make mistakes but the important thing is how well you can come back from those mistakes,” said Shakib.
“Also, you can tell other people not to make those mistakes. Tell them the path so that they never take those paths. That will give them a better idea about not to go in those kinds of paths.
“It could have happened with someone else. In that case I could have learned from that. But instead, it happened with me. And other people need to learn from my mistakes.
“I wanted to be honest from the first day. I never hid anything when I was questioned about the incident. The thing I said straightforwardly: ‘Yes, I made mistakes. It should not have happened from a player like me. But it was a mistake. I apologize for that. I want to move forward from this, learn from these mistakes and never do such mistakes again’.”
Shakib also believes becoming father of two daughters have changed his life and that he is a more calm person now compared to the early days of his career.
“I got responsibility a bit early in my career. So I was bound to make mistakes. I got captaincy at the age of 21. I made a lot of mistakes. Now I look back and realize, there were some areas where it was my fault and in some matters there were misunderstanding. And I understand that completely,” said Shakib.
“I am happy to live my life like this. Of course I will try to minimize my mistakes as much as I can. Since I got married and now I have two kids, I understand the life and also the game in a better perspective.
“These things are helping me to become more calm as a person compared to my early 20s. I have changed now. I think people will not see me doing those mistakes now. Because my two daughters have changed my life completely,” Shakib concluded.
It was learnt that Shakib might start practice individually in England after the Eid-ul-Azha vacation.
