Shakib: a career of landmarks and controversies

It was an eventful and long day of October for the reporters at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur in 2019. Shakib Al Hasan, then the Bangladesh captain, had been banned by the ICC after failing to report multiple corrupt approaches made to him.

Bangladesh had had a multi-format tour coming up to India. BCB had to name two new captains for the Tests and T20s after that. Shakib’s cricket career, which already had a long list of controversies, had hit its lowest point on that October day.

Almost five years later, during a multi-format tour to India, Shakib announced his retirement on Thursday in a dramatic style, this time just the day before the second Test in Kanpur.

According to him, if BCB can assure him a safe exit and give him the security, then the first Test against South Africa in the next month will be his last in this format.

The former captain also said that he had already played his last T20I. Though he hasn’t shut the door, completely hinting that if BCB wants, he may return in this format in the future. As for now, he’s the only cricketer in this format to score more than 2,500 runs and take more than 100 wickets.

Shakib, often anonymous with the rise of Bangladesh cricket to a different level, has an illustrious list of achievements that is rivalled only by his disciplinary infractions and his brief political career under the country’s loathed ex-leader.

He has a murder case filed against him and was recently fined by the country’s Securities and Exchange Commission for manipulating share price. He was amidst vast criticism after posting a family outing photo in Canada when the country was going through a mass uprising led by the students.

On the field, Shakib has been struggling too.

In Pakistan, his bowling was not far from the grid, but later in the first Test against India, Shakib was off-colour. His last five-wicket haul was in May 2022.

With the bat, Shakib got the start in Chennai in both innings. But he could not reach fifty, a landmark that he last achieved in April last year.

Shakib has been struggling with a serious eye condition and was seen to bite a strap around his neck to maintain his head position.

The 37-year-old is regarded as one of the leading all-rounders of his era after making his debut in 2006.

He had already become a star by the time he hit a fifty against India in the following year’s World Cup in a David-and-Goliath victory still spoken of reverently by Bangladesh fans.

In 2010, he led Bangladesh to their first ODI series win over a leading cricket nation, with a 4-0 home sweep of New Zealand.

Shakib struggled under the pressure of the captaincy so early in his career, and was sacked after a disappointing tour of Zimbabwe in 2011.

By 2014, his relationship with the Bangladesh Cricket Board reached its lowest ebb.

His ill-discipline had seen him threaten a spectator with a bat. He then made a lewd gesture to a television crew and was banned by the BCB for three ODIs.

A running dispute with coach Chandika Hathurusingha and a decision to compete in the Caribbean Premier League without BCB clearance led to a six-month suspension.

Shakib’s sanction was lifted early after apologising and pledging to ‘behave in a more mature way’.

He scored a century and took 10 wickets in his comeback Test against Zimbabwe, becoming only the third cricketer to achieve the all-round feat after Ian Botham and Imran Khan.

He is one of the five all-rounders in Tests to take more than 240 wickets and to score more than 4,500 runs, along with Jaques Kallis, Kapil Dev, Daniel Vettori, and Ian Botham.

In 2017, he scored a century to bail out Bangladesh from a precarious 33-4 to a remarkable five-wicket win over New Zealand in Cardiff.

Shakib reached his pinnacle at the 2019 World Cup in England, where he made 606 runs and claimed 11 wickets, an all-rounder record for the tournament.

But he also continued to court controversy.

Then came the ban imposed by the ICC. But soon after his return, he was again named Test and Twenty20 skipper, but in 2022 the BCB forced him to abandon a partnership with an offshore betting site.

The following year he was a guest at the opening of a boutique jeweller in Dubai, despite Bangladeshi police informing him the store’s proprietor was a fugitive accused of murder.

Before the 2023 ODI World Cup, Shakib was named the captain after Tamim Iqbal retired and then unretired himself but eventually dropped from the squad controversially.

Shakib’s relationship with Tamim also became a massive talking point in Bangladesh cricket.

But looking back, Shakib said that he has no regrets in his career. He does not regret anything. And about his career, Shakib said with a laugh that he thinks he has done reasonably okay.

For Bangladesh, certainly as a cricketer, Shakib has done more than okay like no other. But as the controversies go, well, maybe that will always be up for a debate.

After all, Shakib has always been that type of cricketer.

Saifullah Bin Anowar , New Age