Mashrafe Mortaza expresses his anguish at Shakib Al Hasan's ban

Mashrafe Mortaza has played a massive role in giving recognition to Bangladesh cricket on the world stage. It was under his captaincy that Bangladesh had reached the quarterfinals of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 and semi-finals of the ICC Champions Trophy 2017. Mortaza had also led Bangladesh to two consecutive Asia Cup finals in 2016 and 2018 respectively. At the same time, it can also be rightfully said that there was a player who had also played a vital role in Bangladesh cricket's success along with Mashrafe. He is Shakib Al Hasan. After Shakib was handed a two-year ban along with a one-year suspension for not reporting a corrupt approach made by a bookie earlier, Mashrafe Mortaza came forward to express his disappointment.

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Mortaza gutted at Shakib's ban

Taking to the micro-blogging site, former skipper Mashrafe Mortaza who is also one of Shakib's best friends mentioned that in the event of a long 5-year war, he will definitely spend some sleepless nights. The veteran cricketer then added that after a while, he can sleep peacefully thinking that under his leadership Bangladesh will play in the World Cup finals of 2023. 

Read Mashrafe Mortaza's tweet here:

READ: Md Ashraful stunned by Shakib's failure to report corrupt approaches

Shakib Al Hasan accepts charges

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. Sunrisers won the game by 13 runs. Shakib had "accepted three charges of breaching the ICC Anti-Corruption Code", something which went in his favour as he escaped the maximum punishment of five years for the offence. 

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