Shahadat Hossain faces five-year ban for assault on teammate

Former Bangladesh Test pacer Shahadat Hossain has been slapped with a five-year ban (with two years suspended) for assaulting teammate Arafat Sunny in the recently concluded National Cricket League. The fast bowler has also been fined Taka 3 lakh for the incident that took place on Day 2 of a match between the Khulna Division and Dhaka Division.

Arafat had reportedly said that Shahadat was incapable of shining the ball on one side, which prompted an angered reaction from Shahadat, who then pushed and kicked Arafat. Match referee Akhtar Ahmed reported the verdict and then passed it on to BCB’s technical committee who imposed the heavy fine to penalise the bowler. Shahadat accepted the verdict but also defended his actions, saying Arafat ‘misbehaved’ with him during the altercation.

“The match referee has no authority to punish Shahadat for what he has done. His offence falls under level 4 offence,” said Ahmed.

“This is a big offence because it is not something like a bad gesture or an abuse. He kicked his teammates. Now it has been sent to BCB. The board will decide whether to punish him after the evidence and verification of the incident.”

The 33-year-old has played 38 Tests, 51 ODIs and 6 T20Is for Bangladesh and scalped 123 wickets across formats.

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