Shakib Al Hasan. FFS.

Oh Shakib. What have you done? Or rather what haven’t you done? I never thought a player as respected as Shakib Al Hasan, a player who’s one of my personal favourites, would breach the ICC’s anti-corruption code. It’s a really sad day. And it brings back all those concerns about unscrupulous and criminal behaviour in cricket. Just how deep does the rabbit hole go?

For those who haven’t yet heard, Shakib has just been banned for two years (one of which is suspended) for failing to report approaches by a bookie. It’s not exactly the Hansie Cronje affair all over again, as there’s no evidence that Shakib actually took money from bookies or did anything wrong other than failing to report these approaches, but it’s still serious stuff.

This really has come out of the blue. Shakib is such a popular figure in world cricket and he always seemed like a smart cookie. I simply can’t believe that he didn’t report these approaches – after all, it happened three times – and one has to wonder why. Was he just naive? Did he feel threatened? It’s just so disappointing.

The biggest fear, of course, is one wonders whether these kinds of approaches are so common now that it’s water off a duck’s back for a player of Shakib Al Hasan’s stature? If you’ve been approached multiple times, and you know other players are receiving similar approaches, perhaps you think it’s no big deal. The really puzzling thing is that Shakib had reported approaches like this in the past. Why was this one any different?

One has to feel for Bangladeshi cricket in general after this. Shakib is their best player by far, and as an all-rounder he makes a key contribution with both bat and ball. It’s hard to think of another international player who is so integral to his team’s chances of success. What’s more, the ban has come just before a tour of India – perhaps the hardest tour of them all.

I imagine that a lot of Bangladesh supporters are feeling sicker than Norwegian Blue parrots today. Shakib Al Hasan is their hero. And he’s let them all down in a big way. It will be interesting to see what kind of reception he receives when he makes his comeback in November next year – which will be in the middle of the T20 World Cup.

Talking of the T20 World Cup, England played their second warm-up match in New Zealand overnight. It didn’t go well. England scored a competitive looking 188-5 off their 20 overs but their New Zealand XI opponents knocked off the runs with consummate ease for the loss of just two wickets (and with nine balls to spare). Not good.

The star for the hosts was Colin Monroe, who creamed an unbeaten 107 in just 57 balls. That’s pretty bloody impressive. Journeyman Anaru Kitchen – don’t worry, I’ve never heard of him either – also made a rather useful 48 off 29 balls.

There are two ways of looking at this result. On the one hand there’s no shame in losing to a Monroe special. He’s a very talented and explosive international cricketer with an excellent T20 record. He’s done this kind of thing before and he’ll no doubt do it again.

On the other hand the performance of England’s new boys was a bit worrying again. Mahmood and Brown struggled for the second game in succession, and leggie Matt Parkinson also had a day to forget. Lewis Gregory had a bit of a mare with the ball too and conceded 27 off just two overs.

The only bowler who could hold his head high was Tom Curran. And perhaps we shouldn’t be too surprised about this. Curran is an excellent death bowler and has a bit more experience and attitude than the other guys.

Let’s hope that England’s bowlers can improve as the tour goes on. We shouldn’t be too concerned, as most of these guys are still very wet behind the ears and we shouldn’t make premature judgements on the back of just two games, but it won’t be long before critics start to question whether England’s supposed strength in depth in white ball cricket is an illusion.

At least the batsman had a decent day though. Although Dawid Malan and Tom Banton struggled early on, it was good to see Joe Denly make 39 off 25 balls (his highest T20 score for England), whilst James Vince top scored with 46 off 32. Lewis Gregory also hit two 4s and two 6s at the death in partnership with Sam Billings.

There’s no doubt, however, that the big news of the day was Shakib Al Hasan. The issue of corruption in cricket just won’t go away. And it’s hard to know what the ICC can do to eliminate the problem.

James Morgan

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12 comments

  • I have sympathy for Bangladesh – of their other players only Mushfiqur Rahim (pos the best wicketkeeper/batter currently playing test cricket – ECB bods you know why the caveat) is anywhere near in the same bracket – but none for Shakib, since he knew the rules and the potential consequences for breaking them, My own feeling, as in Bancroft, Smith and Warner and the sandpaper, is that he probably deserved a harsher punishment than he has actually got.

  • I disagree Thomas – I think the TWO year ban for not doing anything wrong (except ignoring it) is a load of rubbish when compared to what Smith, Warner and Bancroft got for. let’s face it, cheating.

    • Hi Thomas & Fengunner. It’s a really tricky one. How does one weigh corruption versus cheating? Both undermine the authenticity of cricket as a spectacle. If spectators suspect that aspects of a match may be fixed*, or that one side is cheating, it undermines the whole game.

      * I am not suggesting that Shakib in any way fixed matches. I’m just broadening the discussion to encompass all cricket corruption.

      • Well, if you want to broaden it, why are the office holders from the ICC not investigated after they PUBLICLY ADMITTED to behaving corruptly in terms of deciding on fixtures for global tournaments?

        Oh no, it is not corruption if it fills the coffers of the ICC, and integrity be damned.

  • “it’s hard to know what the ICC can do to eliminate the problem”.

    They may nor be able to “eliminate” the problem but there is a heck of a lot more they could be doing:
    1) Catch some actual fixers rather than just concentrate on player education.
    2) Investigate accusations like those from al-Jazeera properly rather than allowing rich boards to dismiss them before they could have even investigated them in any detail.
    3) Re-distribute wealth and fixtures from richer boards to poorer boards so players from the latter will have more to lose if they are caught and banned.
    4) Those that run the game set a better example by acting as if they make money to play cricket rather than they play cricket to make money.

    Alternatively, they could just give the players from poorer countries the same pass thet’re giving players from richer countries and we could all pretend there’s no fixing going on anywhere. UNless you believe that no player from the Big Three has been involved in any fixing in recent years and what went on in Australia’s tour of India or the Headingley Test was above suspicion…

    Meanwhile, next year’s CC fixtures have been published. Seven rounds will be played before May 25th and five after Sept 7th with the last day on Sept 30th (four days later than these season). It’s another slice of salami in killing it off.

    • English county season finishes 18 days before an international tournament in Australia?! That must be a first…

  • If the eastern countries, where this sort of betting is endemic, don’t make an effort to get to grips with this the pressure it puts on players, many of whom come from the kind of poverty stricken backgrounds we can only imagine, is enormous, certainly much greater than anything our players have to contend with. These consortiums have a deal of political clout and rather than just talking the effects they cause the culture needs to be addressed. This requires international cooperation across sporting bodies in general.
    Agree about our 20-20 side. What have most of these players achieved internationally. Seems like another try out to me where youngsters are thrown in at the deep end without any real developmental background.
    Know next to nothing about our attack, so what do we expect? Difficult to tell.

  • The calendar is almost designed to encourage corruption. Most top players now spend a lot of their time playing in tournaments that only exist as money making exercises for teams, or rather ‘franchises’, who their only commitment to is financial. There is no sense of loyalty or team bond here so if a chance comes along to make even more easy cash through throwing a match, the outcome of which is virtually irrelevant to them anyhow, then no wonder more are going to take the money & run.

  • Why is anyone surprised. The game is riddled (as is all sports) with shady betting. Sadly, it’s now my first thought when anything good/unusual/weird happens…

    Anyone thinking it’s limited to smaller nations is delusional too. Big nations are greedy and run for money.. money means more to them than the game

    I think that’s the sad part, this isn’t news. It’s not surprising and I sadly think a lot of the series we see in all formats suffer from some kind of shady skullduggery of some type.

  • Not quite sure why Shakib didn’t report them immediately, but it sucks. It is even more easier for bookies to do this now that T20 leagues are sprouting up all over the globe and it is hard to keep track of them all.

  • I am bitterly disappointed in Shakib. During his time at Worcester he never played without a smile on his face and his contributions were very good.
    It’s sad when one’s heroes fall short of the high standards we invest in them but he knew the rules. Nothing’s perfect.

  • The history of our beloved game has been riddled with betting issues like no other game in this country with the possible exception of horse racing. Indeed parliament once banned it for a time because they felt it attracted too much corrupt activity. Even Into the Edwardian era there was unparalleled opportunity for all classes to engage in on site betting at matches, there being so many incidents to bet on during a match.

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