The Bangladesh Cricket Board has apparently rewarded all-rounder Sakib al Hasan for his historic achievement in the ongoing Test series against Zimbabwe by promising to lift his ban on participating in overseas leagues. The BCB in July had suspended Sakib for six months and barred him from participating in franchise-based foreign Twenty20 leagues up to December 2015.While BCB lifted his playing ban on appeal after two-and-half months, his Twenty20 ban is still in place.
‘I think it would be difficult to ignore his request of playing in the other leagues,’ BCB president Nazmul Hasan told the reporters on Tuesday upon his return from an International Cricket Council meeting in Dubai.
‘Earlier he [Sakib] told me that he wants to apply to reconsider his ban of playing in the other leagues,’
‘I asked him that he should concentrate on the current Zimbabwe series and now when he has played well in the last two matches, it is going to be hard to say no,’ he said.
Sakib scored a century and picked 10 wickets in the second Test to become only the third cricketer in Test history to accomplish the feat beside Imran Khan and Ian Botham.
The ace-all rounder contributed heavily in the Tigers’ three-wicket win in the first Test when he claimed 6-59 in the first innings.
Despite BCB’s promise, Sakib, however, is unlikely to play any serious part for Kolkata Knight Riders in the upcoming Indian Premier League as Nazmul suggested that Bangladesh will then be busy playing a home series against Pakistan.
Nazmul said that Pakistan has verbally agreed to come in April though he was disappointed with the Pakistanis for making a repeated request of sending Bangladesh to their trouble-torn country.
‘They were always saying that we should go as they visited us twice,’ said Nazmul.
‘Or else they won’t come and this is where it was. But eventually they agreed to come during a meeting on Monday.’
Nazmul brushed aside any suggestion that the BCB is taking an initiative of lifting the domestic ban on former national captain Mohammad Ashraful.
The ICC in its Monday’s meeting amended its anti-corruption guideline giving respective boards some power of lifting a domestic ban on player facing match-fixing charge.
Such withdrawal of ban, however, has to be agreed by the chief of ICC’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit.
Nazmul said ACSU chief is unlikely approve any such initiative of BCB regarding Ashraful.
‘They [the ICC] want Ashraful to serve a minimum five-year ban for his offence,’ said Nazmul.
-With New Age input
