BCB all set to award central contract to Shakib Al Hasan
Shakib Al Hasan's ban ended in October
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The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) will once again reward Shakib Al Hasan with a central contract if the talismanic all-rounder returns to the national squad for the Windies series. Shakib was axed from the list following his ban by the ICC in 2019 for failing to report corrupt approaches.
Bangladesh lost the services of one of the greatest all-rounders of the generation after the ICC found out that the Bangladesh cricketer was guilty of not reporting corrupt approaches from the bookies in multiple instances. However, as the ban ended in October, BCB cricket operation chairman Akram Khan confirmed to Cricbuzz that Shakib will be included in the central contract list again, from the upcoming home series against West Indies.
"We will include him in the national contract the moment he starts playing for the national team and if everything goes according to plan he will be featuring for us in the upcoming home series against West Indies," Akram said.
This will be a deviation from normal service as BCB normally assesses the performance of cricketers in international and domestic cricket before awarding a contract. However, Shakib has failed to muster any steam in the ongoing Bangabandhu T20 Cup, a domestic T20 tournament arranged by BCB as a part of resuming cricket in the country, where he has scored 15, 12, 3, 11, and 14 where he picked up only three wickets. But Shakib feels that will not have a bearing.
"It is difficult to adjust after coming back from a gap of one year. He (Shakib) is a great player but I believe he will be back soon. Since it's T20 format [Bangabandhu T20 Cup] and the time frame is short he is finding it difficult to adjust and as a result he is failing to do well. But soon he will return back to his best," he said.
