BCB bans Shahadat for 5yrs

Shahadat Hossain

Bangladesh Cricket Board on Tuesday banned former national cricketer Shahadat Hossain for five years, two years of them suspended, after he assaulted a team-mate in a National Cricket League match.

Match officials said Shahadat beat young fast bowler Arafat Sunny Jr after the latter failed to follow his instruction of raising the shine of ball during the NCL final round

match between Dhaka and Khulna in Khulna on Sunday.

‘The match officials reported him for level-four offence. The punishment for this kind of offence is one-year ban to life ban. We decided to punish him for five years considering his past behaviours. The last two years of his ban will remain suspended,’ said BCB’s technical committee chief Minhajul Abedin.

Minhajul said Shahadat was also fined Taka three lakh.  Minhajul said they are also considering a punishment for other Dhaka division bowler, who joined Shahahat in beating Sunny and was charged with level-2 offence by the match officials

Shahadat’s ban will come into effect after the BCB formally approves the decision of the technical committee.

Shahadat said he will appeal against the ban.

‘I accept my fault. It happened in the heat of the moment,’ Shahadat told New Age.

‘I only pushed him, did not hurt him. But I agree it’s a mistake. As a Test player I should not have done this. I regret it.

‘But five-year ban is too harsh for me. I would have accepted six-month ban or some fine. I will appeal against the ban.

‘My mother is a cancer patient. She stopped eating after the news. If I am banned for five years it will also take away my livelihood,’ he said.

Shahadat, who played 38 Tests and 51 one-day internationals, spent nearly two months in jail in 2015 after he and his wife were charged with torturing an 11-year-old girl they employed as a maid.

Shahadat hit the headline for wrong reason again in 2018 when he beat a CNG-run auto-rickshaw driver for hitting his car in Dhaka’s Asad Gate area.

Source: New Age.