Shakib joins practice amid tension over Grameenphone deal

Amid the tension over his Grameenphone deal, ace all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan joined national team’s camp for the upcoming India tour on Saturday.

Shakib skipped the first day’s practice due to his cold fever and stayed at home. On that day, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Nazmul Hassan Papon said that they are set to send a legal notice to Test and T20 skipper for making a deal with local telecom company Grameenphone which violated the rules and regulation of the board.

Shakib struck the agreement with former national team sponsor Grameenphone for an undisclosed sum on Tuesday at a moment when he was also leading a players’ strike for better pay and benefits.

The premier all-rounder of the country is believed to ink the deal after taking a verbal permission from the board.

The BCB CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury however said there should be a written permission if any player makes deal with anybody else, which Shakib didn’t do.

“I don’t know whether he discusses with this issue with anybody else but he should obtain the NOC first before making any deal,” Chowdhury said.

“It’s the thing he didn’t do and he should know well that the board has some restriction about telecom companies.”

After getting the news of BCB’s stance, Shakib met CEO and the duo discussed for an hour.

Both Shakib and CEO refused to make the comment on their discussion.

Shakib then joined the practice session and was seen bowling and batting in the net.

Earlier, BCB president Nazmul Hassan Papon said they will seek compensation from both Shakib and the phone company.

“We are going to take legal action. There is no scope to spare anyone. We will seek compensation from both the company and the player,” Papon said.

Grameenphone — which is majority owned by Norway’s Telenor — was the sponsor of Bangladesh Cricket Board during the period of 2009-2011.

Papon said the Board incurred huge losses after the company signed players individually instead of bidding to become the team sponsor in 2015 when a rival operator won the deal.

“This is why we barred the players to sign any agreement with telcos… yet, he (Shakib) did this. And you see the timing? Agreement after stopping play. These are audacious behaviour,” he said.

Sakib led a players’ strike on Monday for better wages and demanding a larger share of board’s revenue.

The players called off the strike late on Wednesday and started training on Friday for next month’s India tour as the BCB accepted most of their demands.