Bangladesh Cricket Board bans Sabbir Rahman for six months from international cricket

Notorious Bangladeshi all-rounder Sabbir Rahman has been in and out of trouble ever since he made his debut for the Bangladesh Cricket team in 2014. On 29 November 2016, Rahman, along with Al-Amin Hossain, was fined 30% and 50% of their Bangladesh Premier League contracts respectively by the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) for "serious off-field disciplinary breaches".

Now, the 26-year old has once again been slapped with a six-month ban from all forms of international cricket after a meeting with the Bangladesh disciplinary committee. Rahman was involved in a social network fiasco where he was alleged to have abused and threatened a cricket fan on Facebook. Sabbir and fellow cricketer Mossadek Hossain attended a disciplinary committee hearing of the BCB as they were summoned by the board after various allegations were labeled against the duo. While most of them were directed towards Rahman, Hossain was called to clear the air following allegations made by his wife.

"We recommended a six-month ban from international cricket and it will be implemented from tomorrow. He is yet to play domestic cricket for his earlier ban that is expected to end this September. But today we had taken this decision for his Facebook post. Though he said that it was hacked, we don't have the mechanism to verify that,'' BCB director Ismail Haider told reporters after the hearing. 

Ismail also said that the short-tempered cricketer has been warned of a lengthy ban if this behavior continued. Sabbir has been charged in the past for a number of issues like physically assaulting a fan during a National Cricket League match in Rajshahi, using abusive words while replying to a Facebook post of a fan and hitting team-mate Mehedi Hasan during the Afghanistan series. He is currently still serving a six-month ban from domestic cricket as a punishment and was also denied a national contract along with a fine of Tk 20 lakh. 

"Now he is banned from international cricket but we have warned him that if he continues in this manner he will be handed with a lengthy ban,. He repented for his action. According to our finding, he has lost around Tk 1.5 crore due to his earlier punishments. Some rectify and some don't. Probably he has been lacking in guidance while there is a possibility that he is mixing with wrong people," Ismail added.