Sports Desk

Dhaka Capitals head coach Khaled Mahmud said on Thursday that absence of Shakib Al Hasan will have an impact in the forthcoming edition of Bangladesh Premier League, country’s lone franchise-based T20 tournament.

Shakib was picked by Chattogram Kings as direct signing but as things stand now, he is unavailable for the tournament as he is barred from entering the country due to political issues.

Recently, the veteran all-rounder came under the spotlight for a suspected bowling action that has forced him to get a clearance again in order to bowl in international cricket and in other domestic competitions apart from his country.

The left-arm spinner was reported for a suspect action during his one-off appearance for Surrey in September this year in the county match against Somerset in Taunton. He was subsequently asked to undergo an analysis of his action which later revealed that he had exceeded the 15 degree threshold as defined in the regulations.

As a result, Shakib recently appeared for a reassessment of his bowling action at an accredited centre in Chennai on 21 December.

Mahmud, who worked with him both at domestic and international dressing room, said that though other cricketers cannot openly say that they are missing Shakib but in reality it is the fact.

“There are lots of Sakibians in the country. Certainly, it will have an impact on the crowd and there is no doubt about it,” Mahmud told reporters after the opening day practice of Dhaka Capitals at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium Academy premises on Thursday.

“Shakib is the best cricketer of Bangladesh and he is the number one cricketer. Shakib will certainly not play for his whole life this is true but it is our failure that he cannot play here despite playing cricket,” he said.

“Probably he came to politics while nearing the end of his career but the whole Bangladesh knows him as a cricketer and he got stardom because of cricket. I cannot say what kind of corruption he did as a politician but it is surprising to me that we mixed his long career with those seven to eight months(in politics) and if we could show bit more farsightedness… the best player of the country cannot play biggest tournament of the country,” he added.

“Every cricketer is disappointed though they cannot say that in front of the mic but they are disappointed because Shakib was friendly with everyone and helped everyone and so feeling bad taking that into consideration,” he concluded.

Meanwhile, Chittagong Kings head coach Shaun Tait said he can’t worry about a player who’s not with the team right now.

“Anything that's out of my control, I can't worry about that too much. Whoever player we have in our squad, that's my concern,” Tait said on Thursday.