Bangladesh allows ousted parliamentarian cricketer Shakib to play in Pakistan Test series

Dhaka: Ousted Bangladeshi lawmaker and cricketer Shakib Al Hasan was given permission on Wednesday to remain with the national side in Pakistan by the de facto leaders who toppled his old boss.

Shakib, a former Bangladesh captain, took office in January as a lawmaker for ousted ex-premier Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League party after elections staged without any genuine opposition.

He lost that job last week when parliament was dissolved after Hasina abruptly resigned and fled to India by helicopter in a dramatic conclusion to a student-led national uprising.

One of those student leaders, 26-year-old Asif Mahmud, is now the de facto sports minister in an interim government and granted Shakib permission to remain with the team despite his ties to Hasina and the Awami League.

“We presented the team before the sports adviser,” Iftekhar Ahmed, a director of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), told AFP.

“He did not oppose the inclusion of Shakib. He said that the team should be formed on merit.”

Mahmud was one of the key members of Students Against Discrimination, a protest group that organised the rallies that ousted Hasina.

He and fellow student leader Nahid Islam are both members of the advisory cabinet led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus that took office after Hasina fled.

Shakib, 37, was seen by AFP training at the Gaddafi Cricket Stadium in Lahore on Wednesday.

He had not been seen since Hasina’s resignation and joined the Bangladeshi squad in Pakistan straight from Canada, where he was playing in a Twenty20 competition.

Shakib is normally a prolific Facebook user but has not made a public post since July 14 -- two days before the start of a lethal police crackdown on the protests.

“Shakib cannot avoid the responsibility of mass killings as a lawmaker,” former BCB board member Rafiqul Islam, who served before Hasina took office, told AFP.

“When students were being killed, he never protested. Many of these students considered him an icon. He should have come home first and gave an explanation why he was silent.”

Rafiqul joined a protest on Tuesday outside the BCB’s headquarters at Bangladesh’s main cricket venue, the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium.

He and other sports administrators demanded the ouster of cricket board members they accused of being Hasina loyalists.

“Mismanagement, autocratic behaviour, and unbridled corruption put Bangladesh lagging behind in world cricket,” the group said in a statement on Monday.

Hasina’s party offices have been looted and torched since she fled on August 5 and many members of her Awami League have gone into hiding, fearing violence.

Bangladesh’s courts, central bank and other government institutions have been purged of Hasina loyalists since Yunus’ interim government took power.

Meanwhile, the second cricket test match between Pakistan and Bangladesh in Karachi starting Aug. 30 will be played without fans due to ongoing construction work at the National Bank Stadium, the Pakistan Cricket Board said on Wednesday.

The PCB started renovating the stadium this month as part of its preparations for next year’s Champions Trophy, which begins Feb. 19.

The PCB said it has suspended ticket sales for the Karachi test “with immediate effect” and that fans who have already purchased tickets will receive a full refund.

“The health and safety of our fans is our utmost priority,” the PCB said in a statement. “After careful consideration of all available options, we have decided that the safest course of action is to hold the second test in front of an empty stadium.”

The cricket board said it wanted to make the stadium more spectator-friendly for the Champions Trophy, which will be the first ICC event hosted in Pakistan since the 1996 World Cup.

The first test match will be played at Rawalpindi starting Aug. 21.

Agencies