I was misunderstood- Shakib
Image : Collected
|| CF Correspondent ||
Bangladesh iconic all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan said that he has seen many controversies ever since he was first made captain in 2009.
Shakib had trouble with the board chief, selectors and the media, mainly about selectorial decisions and not being made permanent captain between 2009 and 2010.
The all-rounder also said that he believes he learned many from those bitter experiences which have changed him a lot as a person over time.
Shakib is currently serving a year-long ban since last October after accepting three charges of breaching the ICC anti-corruption code for failing to report corrupt approaches in two tournaments in 2018: an ODI tri-series in January and an IPL match when he turned out for SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH).
“I think [it’s] a combination of both [controversy following him, and vice versa]. I got the responsibility so early in my career, I was bound to make mistakes. I was captain when I was 21. I made a lot of mistakes, and there are so many things that people think about me. Now I realise that it was my fault in some areas, and in some I was misunderstood. But I get it completely. It is part and parcel in the subcontinent,” Shakib was quoted in an interview on ESPNcricinfo’s Cricketbaazi series, hosted by Deep Dasgupta on Friday.
“Of course, I’ll try to minimise [my mistakes] as much as I can, but by the time I got married, and now I have two kids, I understand the game and life better. It has made me a calmer person than I was in my twenties. I have changed quite a lot. People won’t see me making a lot of mistakes now. My two daughters changed my life completely,” he said.
Shakib also spoke about his experience in the Bangladesh dressing room as captain, during a period when he had to lead other seniors like Mohammad Ashraful and Mashrafe Mortaza.
Mashrafe and Shakib exchanged captaincy stints during a difficult phase for Bangladesh cricket over 18 months leading up to the 2011 World Cup.
“I never had to face difficulties due to senior players,” Shakib said.
“It was never a problem. We were a team struggling to win consistently, so our focus was to improve our game. Off the field, there were always issues. If you say something in the media, it diverted into another direction. I feel that I needed those things at that time, and it helped me to bring me where I’m now,” he said further.
The mercurial all-rounder will likely return to international cricket during Bangladesh’s proposed Test series against Sri Lanka in October and if it is further delayed Shakib might be included in the squad depending on his fitness and form.
Shakib is expected to visit England to resume his practice before arriving in Bangladesh while there are talks in rife that he might stay in BKSP to fine-tune before joining others in the field of cricket.
