Shakib Al Hasan awarded all-format contract by BCB despite doubtful future

Shakib Al Hasan had backed out from the New Zealand Test series in January citing personal reasons and then decided to withdraw from the away series against South Africa starting March 31 at the very last moment due to ‘mental fatigue’. The decision did not go down well with the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) President Nazmul Hasan who questioned the veteran all-rounder’s commitment towards representing the country at the highest level.

Just a day after BCB decided to rest Shakib till April 30, it has been reported that the southpaw has been handed an all-format contract by the Bangladesh Cricket Board for the 2022 season after the country’s cricket board officially announced a 21-member list of centrally-contracted cricketers.

Shakib Al Hasan expected to be available across formats in future

As per reports, while Shakib Al Hasan has given verbal assurance to the cricket board to represent Bangladesh across formats once he returns from his break after the South Africa tour, a BCB official has made it clear that the player will only be paid for an unavailable period in case there are injury concerns. Thus, taking Shakib’s case into consideration, it can be assumed that the star all-rounder will not be paid his salary for the time period of his break.

“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,” said a BCB official as quoted by Cricbuzz.

Apart from Shakib Al Hasan, others including the likes of wicketkeeper-batter Mushfiqur Rahim, star opener Liton Das, pacers Shoriful Islam, and Taskin Ahmed have been awarded all-format contracts.

BCB contracts for 2022 are as follow-