Bangladesh’s star all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan has been banned for 2-years(one year of that suspended) from all forms of cricket on Tuesday over the player’s failure to report approaches of corrupt conduct. However, one year was suspended and he is free to resume his career again on October 29, 2020. After the ban, ICC has released details of conversations between the Bangladesh all-rounder and a bookie named Deepak Aggarwal.
Bookie’s conversation with Shakib released
Shakib, who has been found guilty of breaching the ICC Anti-Corruption Code, was charged for not reporting approaches from an alleged Indian bookie twice during a tri-series between Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Zimbabwe in January 2018 and once during IPL in April 2018.
Ahead of the much-anticipated tour to India, Bangladesh received a big set back when they lost their top-ranked all-rounder. With a year of the ban to be served, Shakib can return to international cricket only from October 29, 2020, which means he will be out of Indian Premier League 2020 and T20 World Cup 2020.
In a detailed media release, ICC stated that Shakib was approached by Aggarwal first time in 2017 and since then he has been in constant touch with the bookie, who has been identified by ICC’s Anti Corruption Unit as a suspect of being involved in cricket corruption. The mention of IPL in the conversation also highlighted the India connection in the case.
The investigation reveals:
Shakib Al Hasan was a member of Dhaka Dynamites team, a team that participated in the Bangladesh Premier League in 2017 when his telephone number was provided to Deepak Agarwal by another person who was known to the Bangladesh all-rounder.
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In mid-November 2017, at the instigation of Aggarwal, Shakib exchanged various WhatsApp messages in which the bookie sought to meet him.
In January 2018, Shakib and Aggarwal engaged in WhatsApp conversations right after the all-rounder was selected in the squad for tri-series involving Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe.
On 19 January 2018, Shakib received a WhatsApp message from Aggarwal congratulating him for being named man of the match in that day’s game. Aggarwal followed this message with a message saying “do we work in this or I wait till the IPL”. The reference to “work” in this message was a reference to him providing inside information to the bookie.
On 23 January 2018, Shakib received another WhatsApp message from Aggarwal in which the bookie made another approach to him to provide him with Inside Information, saying “Bro anything in this series?”
Aggarwal’s request to him to provide the bookie with Inside Information in relation to the ongoing tri-series has been confirmed by Shakib during the investigation.
However, both approaches have not been reported by Shakib to ACU.
On 26 April 2018, Shakib received a WhatsApp message from the bookie asking him if a particular player was going to play in an IPL match between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kings XI Punjab. Shakib was playing for SRH.
Aggarwal continued this conversation with him by talking about bitcoins, dollar accounts and asked him for his dollar account details. During this conversation, Shakib told Aggarwal that he wanted to meet him “first”.
Shakib confirmed that he had concerns over Aggarwal, feeling he was a bit “dodgy”, and that, following their conversations, he had the feeling that Aggarwal was a bookie.
While Shakib did not report these approaches, he told the ICC ACU he did not confirm or act upon any of these requests from Aggarwal.
Meanwhile, Shakib accepted all the charges sanctioned on him and will now serve his ban.
