MIRPUr - There seems to be no end to the troubles of Shakib Al Hasan. The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has issued a showcause notice to country's premier all-rounder for making critical remarks about the national team during an interview with a local vernacular newspaper. Shakib has been given time till the weekend to give a satisfactory reply on why he had spoken about Bangladesh's poor campaign in the ongoing World Twenty20. Bangladesh won two and lost five of their matches (including a qualifier against Hong Kong) and after the team's last match, Shakib gave an interview to leading Bangla daily "Prathom Aalo".
In the interview, Shakib had apparently said that "it was a mistake on the part of BCB, fans as well as the media to expect that Bangladesh would perform well." The all-rounder had also said things like Bangladesh "should not play home series for at least two years" that he succeeded at the highest level despite the system and "Bangladeshi players can't hit big sixes regularly as most of them have grown up eating only khichdi and not orange juice!"
BCB has sought an explanation from the player as to how to spoke to a media organisation without taking the board's permission. There was an emergent meeting of the BCB at its headquarters here today and president Nazmul Hasan informed the media persons about the latest development. The BCB has sought reports from the support staff as to why the team's campaign went from bad to worse.
Interestingly, BCB had suspended Shakib from three ODIs after a TV camera caught him making an obscene gesture sitting in the dressing room during an ODI against Sri Lanka. Shakib missed out on the first two matches of the recently held Asia Cup. However with Bangladesh's bare cupboard of talent, it is expected that Shakib will again be let-off with a warning. The reason being that despite Bangladesh's poor show, Shakib was their best performer scoring 186 runs in seven matches, including a half-century against Australia and took eight wickets at an economy rate of under six runs per over.
He is now the only Bangladeshi player whose freelance services are hired by T20 leagues across the world. He is on the payrolls of Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL and Barbados Rockets in CPL. He has also played in Big Bash for the Adelaide Strikers.