Bangladesh cricket's unruly champion

FE Team | Published: September 26, 2024 23:40:51

Shakib Al Hasan during a press conference at Kanpur in India on Thursday ahead of the second Test against India — BCB

Bangladesh cricketer Shakib Al Hasan is the leading all-rounder of his era, whose laundry list of achievements is rivalled only by his disciplinary infractions and his brief political career under his country's loathed ex-leader, reports AFP.
Shakib, who announced his international retirement on Thursday, was the driving force of his team's rise to become serious international contenders, enthralling fans through both star turns and scandals.
The 37-year-old remains the only player to have topped the International Cricket Council all-rounder rankings in all three formats simultaneously.
Selectors have tolerated his transgressions and occasional defiance as the price of sporting glories that in 2022 saw him named his country's greatest athlete by eminent Bangladeshi sports journalists.
"Cricket in Bangladesh is divided into two eras: before and after Shakib Al Hasan," veteran sports reporter Montu Kayser told AFP last year.
"It's like before and after Christ. He is the Jesus Christ of Bangladesh cricket."
Of the many controversies in Shakib's career, none have dogged him like his decision to contest sham elections in January under autocratic ex-premier Sheikh Hasina.
A student-led uprising ousted Hasina last month, with the leader fleeing the country for neighbouring India.
The cricketer was in Canada playing in a T20 league as he lost his lawmaker job during the revolution. He has not returned home since.
Along with dozens more members of Hasina's Awami League, a murder case has been filed against Shakib that accuses him of culpability in the police killing of protesters.
Shakib has not spoken publicly about the case, but his teammates have rallied around him.
"As a teammate and a brother, I will be there during his tough times," veteran batsman Mushfiqur Rahim said on Facebook last month.
"I do not support the false allegations made against him."
Shakib made his international debut aged just 19 in 2006, as a batting all-rounder against Zimbabwe.
He had already become a star by the time he hit a fifty against India in the following year's World Cup in a David-and-Goliath victory still spoken of reverentially by Bangladesh fans.
His remarkable 7-36 in a losing effort against New Zealand sealed his Test spot in 2008.
Two years later he led Bangladesh to their first ODI series win over a leading cricket nation, with a 4-0 home sweep of New Zealand.
Shakib struggled under the pressure of the captaincy so early in his career, and was sacked after a disappointing tour of Zimbabwe in 2011.
By 2014, his relationship with the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) reached its lowest ebb.
Shakib's ill-discipline had seen him threaten a spectator with a bat. He then made a lewd gesture to a television crew and was banned by the BCB for three ODIs.
A running dispute with coach Chandika Hathurusinghe and a decision to compete in the Caribbean Premier League without BCB clearance led to a six-month suspension.
Shakib's sanction was lifted early after apologising and pledging to "behave in a more mature way".