Shakib Al Hasan set to be showcaused by BCB for flouting contract

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Bangladesh's Test and T20I skipper Shakib Al Hasan is set to be show-caused by the Bangladesh Cricket Board after he violated the terms and conditions of the board by agreeing a sponsorship deal with a telecom company.

According to Cricbuzz, BCB president Nazmul Hasan said that the board is set to take strict action if he is unable to explain his actions that satisfies the people concerned. Shkaib agreed a deal with Grameenphone, a local telecom giants. Shakib agreed to be their brand ambassador to inspire and build an empowered digital society.

The agreement was done a day after the Bangladesh cricketers called for a strike by placing a 11-point demand to the board but it eventually ended on October 23. But, according to BCB's players' agreement, a player cannot sign with a telecom company and this is where Shakib's actions have come under the scanner.

"He cannot make this agreement [with a telecom company] and why he cannot make this agreement is clearly stated in our contract paper," BCB president Nazmul Hasan told Bengali daily Kalerkantho on Saturday.

"Robi [Telecom] was our title sponsor and Grameenphone did not bid and instead they grabbed few cricketers by paying them TK One or Two Crores. What happened in the end? The board lost TK 90 Crores in three years," he said.

"Some players gained but the board had to suffer. It cannot happen. So they are informed about it on paper. I think even from the ministry they are told not to do any agreement with the telecom company without informing them while it is there in our contract paper. Then how come he does this agreement without informing us. And look at the timing. It was done when there was no cricket [due to strike]. Look at the audacity,'' he said.

"We are going into legal action. We cannot spare anyone in this regard. We will ask for compensation. We will seek compensation from the company as well as from the player. I heard about it [on October 23] and asked to sent legal notice to Grameenphone to claim compensation. I asked to send a letter to Shakib for explanation. We must give him a chance to show he didn't break the rule. To us it seemed that it was something like 'give a damn to the board' and if that is the case we will take tough action,'' he added.

Cricbuzz also quoted BCB chief executive Nizamuddin Chowdhury as saying that that they were not aware of any such deal between Shakib and Grameenphone but a permission has to be taken before papers are inked.

"'We were not aware of his [Shakib's] deal with Grameenphone,'' said Nizamuddin. "Usually what happens is we don't encourage players to have any commercial deal with a company that can have conflict with the national sponsors," said Nizamuddin.

"Right now we have Unilever as our national team sponsors but the deal is expected to end soon. If any of our players are endorsing any telecom company, then the other telecom companies will not be interested to bid for the national team when our present deal is over with Unilever," he said.