Premier allrounder Shakib Al Hasan has received a full-time contract from the Bangladesh Cricket Board for the coming year despite an uncertain future in the Test team. Cricbuzz reported on March 10, Shakib is one of the five male Bangladeshi cricketers who have gotten a full-time contract for the year 2022.
The news came to light only a couple of days after it became clear that Shakib will not take any part on the tour of South Africa. BCB gave Shakib a break from all international cricket till April 30 to refresh himself physically and mentally, enabling his absence from both ODIs and Tests against the Proteas.
Shakib has held a regular presence in the limited-overs game but has been skipping Tests from time to time. In a media interaction recently, the 34-year-old said he is feeling fatigued at this point and had initially sought a year-long break from Tests.
That hasn’t been followed up with an official request to the BCB as Cricbuzz reported Shakib has conveyed his availability in all formats post the tour of SA through a verbal medium. Thus, even as the experienced allrounder hasn’t yet sat with the BCB president Nazmul Hasan in a pre-scheduled meeting to discuss his future, the BCB has decided to give him the security of an all-format contract.
A BCB official told Cricbuzz, however, that Shakib’s contract will not include a paid leave of absence from the tour of South Africa. The BCB contracts only have allowances for paid leave on injury grounds, not mental health as is the case with Shakib.
“If anyone is unavailable to perform national duty other than injury in that case he will not be paid for that time frame when the team is playing,”
the official was quoted as saying after Shakib told the press he felt like a “passenger” taking part without wholehearted interest in the recent limited-overs series at home against Afghanistan.
As it panned out, it was also the series that saw Shakib endure a rare set of home failures. He did reasonably well on the bowling front but scored a total of only 74 runs in those five matches.
List of BCB’s contracted players for 2022
All formats: Mushfiqur Rahim, Shakib Al Hasan, Liton Das, Taskin Ahmed and Shoriful Islam
Tests and ODIs: Tamim Iqbal and Mehidy Hasan
Only Tests: Mominul Haque, Taijul Islam, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Shadman Islam, Ebadot Hossain, Yasir Ali and Mahmudul Hasan Joy
ODIs and T20Is: Mahmudullah, Mustafizur Rahman and Afif Hossain
Only T20Is: Mohammad Naim, Mahedi Hasan, Nurul Hasan and Nasum Ahmed
New Inclusions: Yasir Ali and Mahmudul Hasan Joy
