ICC suspends Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan for two years for not reporting corrupt approach
The HinduBangladesh captain and star all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan was on Tuesday handed a two-year suspension by the ICC for failing to report three corrupt approaches, including one at the IPL, by a suspected Indian bookie, ousting him from the upcoming tour of India. Shakib was spoken to by the ICC’s Anti-Corruption Unit in January and August this year and he failed to report the approaches made to him by “an individual known to the ACU and suspected of involvement in corruption in cricket, Deepak Aggarwal.” The ICC said Aggarwal had asked Shakib to provide information on team composition and strategy on three separate occasions, one of them being April 26, 2018 when his IPL franchise Sunrisers Hyderabad was to take on Kings XI Punjab. Aggarwal’s other two approaches were during the Bangladesh Premier League when Shakib was playing for Dhaka Dynamites in 2017, followed by the tri-series against Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka in January 2018. The ICC said while Shakib’s voluntary admission, cooperation during interviews worked in his favour, the fact that he failed to report advances made over months was an “aggravating” factor.