Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan was banned for two years – one of those to be suspended pending further breaches – by the International Cricket Council after he accepted breaching three charges of the Anti-Corruption Code of the cricket’s governing body.

Subject to him satisfying the conditions in respect of the suspended part of the sanction, he will be free to resume international cricket on October 29, 2020 informed the governing body.

Shakib, widely regarded as the best cricketer to have come out of Bangladesh and the leading all-rounder in One-day International Cricket, in a statement, revealed that he had failed to report illegal approaches.

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In a release put out on Tuesday, the ICC detailed everything that Shakib admitted to. The 32-year-old has accepted that he was approached by bookie Deepak Aggarwal on numerous instances and was in touch with him through WhatsApp.

Here’s what he admitted to during the ICC interview:

  • In mid-November 2017, at the instigation of Mr Aggarwal, he exchanged various WhatsApp messages with Mr Aggarwal in which Mr Aggarwal sought to meet him.
  • In January 2018, he was selected as part of the Bangladesh team participating in a TriSeries between Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe. During this series, he and Mr Aggarwal engaged in further WhatsApp conversations.
  • On 19 January 2018, he received a WhatsApp message from Mr Aggarwal congratulating him for being named man of the match in that day’s game. Mr Aggarwal followed this message with a message saying “do we work in this or I wait til the IPL”.
  • The reference to “work” in this message was a reference to him providing Inside Information to Mr Aggarwal.
  • He did not report this contact from Mr Aggarwal to the ACU or any other anti-corruption authority.
  • On 23 January 2018, he received another WhatsApp message from Mr Aggarwal in which Mr Aggarwal made another approach to him to provide him with Inside Information, saying “Bro anything in this series?”
  • He confirmed that this message related to Mr Aggarwal’s request to him to provide Mr Aggarwal with Inside Information in relation to the ongoing Tri-Series.
  • He did not report this request for Inside Information from Mr Aggarwal to the ACU or any other anti-corruption authority.
  • On 26 April 2018, he played for the Sunrisers Hyderabad team in its IPL match against Kings XI Punjab.
  • He received a WhatsApp message from Mr Aggarwal that day asking him whether a particular player was going to be playing in the game that day, i.e. again asking for Inside Information.
  • Mr Aggarwal continued this conversation with him by talking about bitcoins, dollar accounts and asked him for his dollar account details. During this conversation, he told Mr Aggarwal that he wanted to meet him “first”.
  • These messages on 26 April 2018 included a number of deleted messages. He confirmed that these deleted messages contained requests from Mr Aggarwal for Inside Information.
  • He confirmed that he had concerns over Mr Aggarwal, feeling he was a bit “dodgy”, and that, following their conversations, he had the feeling that Mr Aggarwal was a bookie.
  • He did not report any of the contact and approaches received from Mr Aggarwal on 26 April 2018 to the ACU or any other anti-corruption authority.
  • Mr Al Hasan told the ACU that he did not accept or act upon any of the approaches he received from Mr Aggarwal, in particular, he did not provide him with any of the information requested, nor did he accept or receive any money or other reward from Mr Aggarwal. However, he did not at any time report any of the approaches to the ACU or any other relevant authority.