Spotlight on Shakib even in the dark
The brightest of stars do not always need clear skies to draw attention and make their presence known to the world. Such can be said about Shakib Al Hasan, undoubtedly the brightest star of Bangladesh cricket, as the premier all-rounder also does not always necessarily need to be involved in a cricketing activity to hog the spotlight.
The 33-year-old all-rounder always seems to find his way into buzzing topics.
While often it is his blistering centuries, a magnificent five-wicket haul or an incredible effort while fielding that catches everyone's eye, it is also not rare to see him make headlines for off-the-field misdemeanours.
Be it reacting too strongly to the Mirpur crowd's booing by making an inappropriate gesture in a big as a World Cup game (after the group stage match against West Indies in the 2011 edition) or venting his anger towards the camera which had zoomed on him more than once while he was in the dressing room, Shakib has often grabbed attention for his off-the-field activities.
The sporting world has come to a standstill for the past two months due to the coronavirus pandemic. Even during this period, with almost no outdoor activities going on around the globe, it was Shakib whose name came up in the news and headlines more than any other Bangladeshi athlete in the past few days.
Shakib, who has been banned -- a two-year sentence imposed by the ICC with one of those suspended -- since October last year, made the headlines when he announced himself to be in self-isolation at a hotel in the United States through a video on social media on March 21. The premier all-rounder travelled to the US to be with his family but not before imposing a 14-day isolation period on himself as advised in order to fight the coronavirus pandemic currently sweeping the globe.
One would be wrong to think that the all-rounder will not make the news at least during that 14-day period of self-isolation as Shakib's trait as an all-rounder once again came to the fore. This time for an off-the-field noble initiative, as The Shakib Al Hasan Foundation joined forces with The Daily Star, Sheba.xyz and Samakal in their joint initiative named 'Mission Save Bangladesh' on March 28 -- when Shakib was on his eighth day of self-isolation. The joint initiative was aimed at providing needy families with groceries and also carrying out community based services like disinfecting public places.
Not long after that, on April 3, Shakib was once again in the news -- again for a good reason. This time the Shakib Al Hasan Foundation announced their collaboration with Bangladesh's leading manufacturing engineering company, Confidence Group, to provide Taka 20 lakh worth of coronavirus testing kits to recognised hospitals and medical institutions across the country.
However, the next time Shakib made the headlines, it was for a negative reason. Around 200 workers of an aquaculture farm in Satkhira, co-owned by the star all-rounder, had gathered for a movement demanding their due salaries on April 20. All those workers, who had blocked the Munshiganj-Nildumur road, claimed they were owed four months' wages -- from January to April 18 -- before Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) dispersed the gathering outside Shakib Al Hasan Agro Farm Limited.
The next day, on April 21, Shakib had instructed the authorities of his aquaculture farm to clear all the due salaries of the employees who had demonstrated a movement. It was the same day when Shakib's partner in the farm Sahagir Hossain Pavel also informed The Daily Star that the movement was a shocking one as they had requested the employees for time till April 30 to pay their dues. Sahagir, who mentioned that Shakib was not personally involved with the matter and had no prior clue regarding it, also informed that he was instructed by the premier all-rounder to clear all the salaries of employees after he had contacted Shakib over phone.
The next day, however, Shakib made headlines on two occasions. The premier all-rounder had announced through a long Facebook post that he resolved the situation by taking full responsibility to pay all the due salaries from his own personal funds and without any assistance from company funds or the co-owners. The left-hander, however, talked about 'hidden agendas' and 'ill intentions' by people, who he claimed to have instigated the workers into taking the streets. Not only that, Shakib also took a swing at the media personnel, blaming them for blowing the whole issue out of proportion by going for sensationalising headlines, which Shakib claimed to be 'partly false and mostly misleading'.
On that same day when he blamed the media for false accusations, Shakib was praised by the same media for his noble gesture of selling one of his favourite bats, the one he used during his impressive campaign at the 2019 ICC World Cup in England, for a price of 20 lakh Taka through an online auction arranged by a page named 'Auction 4 Action' on social media. Shakib had expressed his willingness to put his favourite bat up for auction and donate the funds for battling the coronavirus crisis prior to that.
Shakib's good deeds -- be it leading Bangladesh to victories single-handedly or raising funds and taking initiatives to help the needy ones at times of crisis -- have always come in a bag mixed with some negative events -- ranging from making inappropriate gestures towards fans to lashing out at media for a fault that has clearly his name involved. The last few days were just another example of his idiosyncrasy and may be that is the reason the spotlight always seems to find Shakib even when he is off the field.
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