Shakib, from darling of the masses to enemy of the people | Sports

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Brendon McCullum miscues one and is caught at mid-on. Young bowlers punch the air in celebration. On this crisp afternoon of October 18, 2008 in Chittagong (now Chittagong), McCullum became Shakib-ul-Hasan for the fourth wicket of the innings. He ended with 7 for 36, the best bowling figures in Bangladesh Tests until Tejul Islam’s 8 for 39 in October 2014.

Shakib’s feat came four weeks after Bangladesh cricket’s most controversial effort to date. It was the 21-year-old left-armer’s seventh Test. He was just breaking through, just a cricketer. No stardom. Easy times.

Exactly 16 years later, on October 18, 2024, everything is different. Shakib is Bangladesh’s greatest ever cricketer, but he is coming to the end of a brilliant career. He is the most famous face of the country, the darling of brands. That’s the good part. There is also stigma.

Shakib is now an accomplice of oppression, because of his political career. Enemy of the people.

When he was in Dubai in the third week of October, preparing to fly to Dhaka, Bangladeshi government officials asked him not to board the flight as planned. He was expected to be part of the squad against South Africa, and would retire after playing his farewell Test, the first of two in the series. But protests against his participation made it unsafe for him to return home.

Protesters from the student group Mirpur Chhatro Janata camped outside the Sher Bangla National Stadium, chanting slogans, carrying posters, spray-painting the walls of the stadium with strong words against Shakib. It was a small group of students but they represented widespread anger against Shakib, a member of the Awami League political party, which was ousted in August after student/people protests. Shakib has not returned to Bangladesh since then.

The world outside Bangladesh might find all this incomprehensible. After all, he is a cricket hero. Considering only Test cricket, Shakib’s career has been outstanding.

He was instrumental in their first overseas Test series win in 2009. His century was crucial in Bangladesh’s 100th Test win. His ten-wicket haul gave him his first Test win against Australia. Remember the salute he received after dismissing Ben Stokes in Bangladesh’s stunning Test win over England in 2016? Shakib’s spell on the final day in Rawalpindi two months ago proved crucial in their maiden Test win against Pakistan.

However, the events of July and August are still fresh in the minds of these people. Shakib has always divided opinion, but usually on cricketing matters. His involvement in politics changed the situation. He is still their best cricketer. He is no longer their hero.

Shakib’s entry into politics surprised many, given how busy his cricket calendar has been, and the fact that he was no longer living in Bangladesh, having moved to New York with his family since the pandemic. were moved. He flies back to Bangladesh only to play cricket and shoot his many endorsement commercials.

But if you’re a star in Bangladesh – and they’re not much bigger than Shakib – it’s hard not to get involved in politics, and especially not join the Awami League. In the last two general elections, the Awami League brought under its umbrella eminent personalities from various fields including actors, singers and sports figures. Former Bangladesh captain Naeemur Rahman and Mashrafe Murtaza were already part of the Awami League team.

Cricket is important to politicians in Bangladesh, as it is in the neighborhood in general. The then government handpicked BCB bosses before Nazmul Hasan became the first elected chairman of the board in 2013. That the BCB directors would unanimously vote for Nazeem, given his political background, his father Zal-ur-Rehman was the president of the country. While Nazmal was the interim president of the board before being formally elected to the position. Nazmal’s mother, Ivy Rahman, herself a political heavyweight in Bangladesh in the late 1990s and early 2000s, died of injuries sustained in a grenade attack at a political rally in 2004, where The target was Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina, the country’s prime minister until August this year.

Nazmal grew political influence in the BCB during his 11-year reign. The board’s directors included a minister, a mayor and Sheikh Hasina’s cousin. Second level speakers in the sub-committees also had political connections and influence. During home international matches, the BCB hired Awami League workers as “security volunteers”.

Sheikh Hasina was more than involved. Nazmal recounted stories of how in the 90s the then prime minister once left his work files to spend time on the prayer mat while Tamim Iqbal was batting. A young cricketer once said that a mild reprimand from Sheikh Hasina for tossing two fulls gave him sleepless nights. When Tamim retired in 2023, Hasina’s intervention forced her to reverse the decision within 24 hours. She was often in Mirpur matches.

Shakib was one of his favorite cricketers.

He reportedly expressed interest in joining the party in 2018. Musharraf got the Coconut ticket in the same year but Shakib was in contention for it. Sheikh Hasina apparently asked Shakib to focus on his cricket for now, with the promise that he would get a ticket to contest the 2024 general elections. He kept his promise. And Shakib won. From Magura. There are reports of massive rigging in favor of Awami League.

When things turned sour for the party in July-August, Shakib automatically joined the ranks of the people.

The cricket-loving Bangladeshi public considered his participation in the disputed general election dull. He was welcomed in the BPL this year. It was a first for Shakib. He has shouted at umpires in the past and even chased one with the bat once, but the crowd has always stood by him. Not now. In particular, not to return with him to Bangladesh and not to issue a statement at any stage during or immediately after the revolution in the country.

On 30 July, while playing a Global T20 Canada match in Brampton, Shakib was beaten by Bangladeshis in the crowd. He argued with a fan who asked him about his silence on the unrest at home. Two weeks after the fall of the Awami League government, Shakib was among 147 people charged in connection with the alleged killings in Dhaka. This happened when he was playing the first Test against Pakistan in Rawalpindi.

In an interview aired on Bongo in June this year, Shakib said that when the BCB banned him for six months in 2014 for “serious misconduct” with head coach Chandika Hathorsinghe, he was given a ban by the Bangladeshi. Psychology is well understood. He said being away from cricket tore him apart and the first few days of his suspension were the hardest. But he later learned how to deal with some people and convinced them to relax the ban, he said.

So what did he learn this time?

Shakib has not visited Bangladesh since May this year. He was with the national team until the T20 World Cup before joining the MLC and Global T20 Canada teams. He played Tests in Pakistan and India with a county game at Taunton in between. He announced his retirement from Test and T20I cricket during the Kanpur Test, where he said he wanted to play the final Test in Dhaka starting on 21 October.

Shortly after, in a Facebook post, Shakib apologized for his silence during the political protests. His admirers felt he did what was expected of him after the tragic deaths of students and others in the country, but his critics believed it was lip service.

Soon after, the protesting students returned to the streets and demanded that the BCB drop Shakib from the Test team. On 18 October, Hasan Murad replaced Shakib in the squad. There is still no final word on Shakib, but it is increasingly likely that Kanpur was his last Test match. He has only one ODI left on the horizon but now that he has been ruled out of the Afghanistan series, the chances of him ending his international career in the 2025 Champions Trophy, as he would have liked, look slimmer. is

Why did a giant like Shakib fall like this? Did he deserve what has come to him? Did he invite her?

Shakib happily juggles the roles of politician and businessman in his core role of celebrity sportsperson. He has given Bangladeshis many reasons to be proud when it comes to sports, but they may have failed in other areas. – As a role model, a hero, to millions in their moment of crisis.

People’s opinions may change one day, but it will remain a large part of their legacy, which, like it or not, cannot be shed.