Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Nazmul Hasan has made it clear that star all-rounder Shakib al Hasan will not be part of Bangladesh cricket anymore if he doesn’t revoke 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 later announced his association with Betwinner News, a concern of one of the leading betting and gambling websites in the world.
“There is no option to have a second opinion about Shakib's sponsorship (with Betwinner). BCB has been clear of its stance on the matter and it’s still the same," said Nazmul to the media in Dhaka on Thursday.
“The first time I had come to the BCB [in 2013] I had said we have zero tolerance [against betting, gambling and fixing]. The BCB cannot accept this at any circumstances doesn’t matter how once explores this. There is no option for us and for which we had banned [Mohammad] Ashraful at that time,” the BCB chief added.
Shakib stirred his recent controversy with BCB after he took to his social media accounts and announced his involvement with Betwinner News, a concern of Betwinner dot com – a betting and gambling platform. This had put BCB in dilemma as Shakib was the pole runner as the T20I captain for Asia Cup T20I and the ICC T20 World Cup.
BCB since has officially communicated with Shakib on the matter and has told him to dissolve his association with the betting organization. But according Nazmul, Shakib has not replied officially yet and that the board will wait till Friday before making a bold decision. If Shakib doesn’t end his involvement with Betwinner, the cricketer will not only have to lose his role as Bangladesh Test captain but also will be restricted from participating in any cricketing activity in Bangladesh.
“He [Shakib] cannot have any kind of relation with them [Betwinner]. He has to absolutely come out from it or else he cannot be part of the team, speaking of captaincy comes later. There is no room for discussion here. This has been decided and we are clear about it,” said Nazmul.
“He will have no relation with Bangladesh Cricket Board. A person related to betting cannot be part of Bangladesh cricket,” the BCB boss added.
According to president Nazmul, BCB’s such stance has made the selectors work afresh the Asia Cup squad and apart from the Shakib issue they also have to deal with major injury concerns in the dressing room.
August 8 was the cut-off date of the six participating teams to declare squads for the Asia Cup T20 2022. Bangladesh, however extended the deadline from the ACC [Asian Cricket Council] citing unavoidable reasons. Nazmul informed the Bangladesh squad for the tournament set to start from August 27 in UAE will be declared in a day or two.
“We are now forced to redo the team set-up. You must remember that you are not invincible. I always say that we do not have a second player like Shakib but it’s also true that we have lost matches with Shakib in the team and we have won matches without Shakib in the team,” said Nazmul.
“But it is not possible to move out from some basic things. I do not think this [allowing Shakib to be involved with Betwinner] is possible for us,” the BCB chief added.
Nazmul Hasan led BCB had previously banned or suspended Shakib from cricketing activities on many occasions and over reasons including anger at groundstaff, inappropriate gestures at crowd and on Live television, alleged run-in with fan, offensive test to national team head coach and cussing an umpire.
His biggest punishment however was imposed by the International Cricket Council [ICC] in 2019, a two-year ban from all forms of cricket, with one year of that suspended, after Shakib had accepted three charges of breaching the ICC Anti-Corruption Code. Shakib was found guilty for failing to report an approach from a bookie. He returned from this ban in January 2021.
