‘Since the team has not been given yet, it means Shakib is available’

There are doubts about Shakib Al Hasan's participation in the upcoming ODI series against Afghanistan, especially after he could not play his farewell Test in Mirpur recently.

The selectors had said that they would discuss the matter with the board and the board president before Shakib can be picked in the squad. The BCB president Faruque Ahmed will be attending an important board meeting today and ahead of his meeting, he addressed the media to talk about various issues.

Asked whether the BCB had come to a decision on Shakib, Faruque said: "Regarding Shakib Al Hasan, since the team has not been given yet, it means he is available."

The BCB sources had previously informed that there were doubts on what kind of decision the board will make regarding Shakib since security concerns saw him unable to return to the country.

Faruque said that the board had nothing to do with Shakib being unable to play his farewell Test and asserted that from his position as board president, he tried his level best to make Shakib's farewell Test possible.

"The first thing is that you said that he couldn't play his last Test here but we [BCB] are completely uninvolved with that situation. The law enforcement forces, the government and Shakib were. We are totally an auxiliary part in this. Personally, I tried my level best so that Shakib could take his retirement at home," Faruque told reporters.

"But Shakib is not just a player, he was an MP under the last government. There are some sentiments there. Overall, the government's thoughts and the cricket board's were not the same. As a former player I saw that a boy played cricket for 17 years, he is a brand ambassador, he has done a lot for Bangladesh and I believed it would have been good.

"But we have to see the other things. Considering all that, he could not arrive in the last minute but the board had nothing to do with it. It is completely law related and a matter for the law enforcement agencies. It was up to Shakib and the law enforcement agencies and the board had nothing to do about it," he said.

In what was BCB's first official statement regarding Shakib being unable to play the Mirpur Test, Faruque stated that from the board's part, all kinds of security would have been availed as per as capabilities.

"For the board, if he had arrived, we would try to give him as much security as our powers allow us. Since he didn't come, there is no point talking about it," Faruque concluded on the matter.