So much to learn from Shakib: Soumya

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has banned Bangladesh Test and T20 captain Shakib Al Hasan from all cricket for two years, with one year of that suspended, after he accepted three charges of breaching the ICC Anti-Corruption Code. The ICC announced via a media release on Tuesday.

Shakib was found to be in breach of ICC's Anti-Corruption Code for failing to report approach by bookies. According to the media release, Shakib was approached during the home tri-series against Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka last year in January before he was approached a second time during the same series.

He also failed to report an approach during the IPL 2018 match between Sunrisers Hyderabad v Kings XI Punjab on 26 April 2018.

Shakib will be free to resume international cricket from October, subject to him satisfying the conditions in respect of the suspended part of the sanction.

Shakib said he was extremely sad following the incident.

"I am obviously extremely sad to have been banned from the game I love, but I completely accept my sanction for not reporting the approaches. The ICC ACU is reliant on players to play a central part in the fight against corruption and I didn't do my duty in this instance.

"Like the majority of players and fans around the world, I want cricket to be a corruption free sport and I am looking forward to working with the ICC ACU team to support their education programme and ensure young players don't make the same mistake I did," Shakib said.

Much like Bangladesh skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza and Shakib Al Hasan, the opening duo of Imrul Kayes and Soumya Sarkar were surprised by their sudden recall to the Tigers' camp for the ongoing Asia Cup.

Both the openers were caught off guard as they were taking part in the High Performance squad's four-day match in Khulna when they were asked to catch a flight to UAE the next day ahead of Bangladesh's match against Afghanistan today.

Soumya and Imrul last played for the national team in the ODI series in South Africa almost a year ago.

IMRUL KAYES

The main reason that prompted the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) higher-ups to recall the southpaws was the poor showings from openers Liton Das and Nazmul Hossain -- in the group stage match against Afghanistan and in the Super Four clash against India -- following Tamim Iqbal's departure from the tournament due to a wrist injury.

"Yes, obviously it came as a surprise to me as I was playing a four-day match in Khulna with the High Performance squad. I never imagined that I would get a call-up for the tournament in such a way. But I feel lucky that I will be able to take part in such a tournament and if I am able to play I will try to give my best to perform well," Imrul told reporters before departing for the UAE yesterday.

Soumya hit his last ODI fifty in May 2017 and has since had innings of 0, 28, 3, 3, 0 and 8.

However the stylish left-hander said that he was looking forward to repaying the faith that has seemingly been placed on him for the Asia Cup.

"Obviously it won't be easy as the conditions in the UAE are tough. But at the same time it's also an opportunity for me to cement my place in the ODI format. I have been working on my batting recently. I want to repay the faith which the team management has shown me and cash in to help my team," said Soumya.

Bangladesh have played six different opening pairs in their last 26 ODI innings and, having now included of Soumya and Imrul for the remaining matches of the Asia Cup, the team management will definitely want to get a stable opening pair in the coming days.

Bangladesh cricket superstars Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal were among six Bangladesh players to have registered for England and Wales Cricket Board's (ECB's) inaugural draft for The Hundred.

The four other Bangladesh players to have signed up were Mohammad Mithun, Mohammad Saifuddin, Mustafizur Rahman and Mushfiqur Rahim.

The Hundred is a new competition in a novel 100-ball format in which eight freshly formed teams, representing seven cities from around the UK, compete against each other. Each team has both a men's and women's side.

165 overseas players were registered in the full list before the main draft on October 20 with the likes of Rashid Khan, Chris Gayle, David Warner, Aaron Finch and Babar Azam some of the major names who have already signed up.

Both Shakib and Tamim entered with a reserve price of 100,000 pounds, alongside other star names such as Andre Russell, Glenn Maxwell, Rashid Khan, Sandeep Lamichhane, Shahid Afridi, Dwayne Bravo, Sunil Narine and Kieron Pollard.

There were four reserve price brackets  -- 125,000, 100,000, 75,000, 50,000 and 40,000 pounds.

67 players have not set a reserve price and the four other Bangladesh players in Mushfiqur, Mustafizur, Saifuddin and Mithun are expected to be among them.