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Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan has informed Bangladesh Cricket Board on Thursday that he will terminate his contract with Betwinner News.
This happened following BCB President Nazmul Hassan’s ultimatum on Thursday that the all-rounder will be axed from the national team unless he gives up the deal.
“Anyone affiliated with anything related to betting will not have any affiliation with Bangladesh cricket. We will not include him in the team until we get his reply on paper or if the response is not satisfactory,” Nazmul said.
He added, “There can be no affiliations. He has to come out of that deal completely. Otherwise, he won’t be in the team, captaincy comes later. There is no room for discussions regarding this matter. We’ve decided on this matter and are very clear about it.”
BCB director Jalal Yunus confirmed to The Business Post that Shakib has officially handed in a letter.
“Shakib has given us an official letter stating that he will be terminating his contract with Betwinner News,” Jalal told The Business Post.
Following his letter, Shakib is back in the fore to be the captain of Bangladesh in Twenty20 Internationals starting from the upcoming Asia Cup, for which BCB is yet to announce the squad.
The BCB President informed announce the squad today, and Shakib, already the Test captain, is likely to be the new skipper. If not, Mahmudullah Riyad is likely to take charge.
This puts an end to the controversy that started on August 2 through Shakib announcing that he had struck a deal with Betwinner News, a sports news portal.
But Betwinner News is a surrogate company of Betwinner, a betting company with over 400,000 users. It is owned and operated by Prevailer B.V as a license holder and registered in a Dutch Caribbean Tax Haven Island Curacao.
Betting is illegal in Bangladesh, and Shakib had also not informed BCB before signing the deal, which is also a breach of his contract with the country’s cricket governing body.
After knowing about it, BCB first informed the media that they will investigate the matter before making any decisions.
After that, they informed finding Shakib’s connection with Betwinner News to be true, and gave him a letter asking him to terminate the contract.
Nazmul, on Thursday, said that Shakib had to choose either the national team or his sponsorship deal.
“We have clearcut instructions from the BCB on what players can be involved with. When we invited EOIs for BPL franchises, we made it clear which companies cannot be involved or have connections. This company has connections with the betting website. It’s now up to him whether he will play for Bangladesh or will be involved with that organisation,” he said.
While Betwinner News has put up a notice on their website saying that they have no connections to betting, the BCB President refuses to believe so.
“We do not doubt that this (Betwinner News) is a surrogate brand (of Betwinner). They are the same. They are the same regardless of the names they give to their companies. Basically, they are a betting company involved with gambling and casinos. We are in no doubt about it,” he said.
As the matter with Shakib has now been cleared up, Bangladesh have other issues to focus on as Liton Das, Nurul Hasan Sohan, and Yasir Ali Chowdhury are all injured and are a doubt for the Asia Cup.
Nazmul informed that those three players are out of the tournament.
“We had discussions on possible scenarios (regarding the squad). Liton Das, Sohan, and (Yasir Ali) Rabbi are all injured. They are not in the squad. Putting together the team was a major issue,” he said.
