The Shakib confusion
Shakib Al Hasan’s absence from the opening day of a four-day national training camp in Mirpur yesterday set a lot of tongues wagging.
Although Bangladesh head coach Russell Domingo said after the training session that Shakib had told him that he would not attend because he had a cold and that the Test and T20I skipper was expected to join the camp today. Cricket operations committee chairman Akram Khan however had no idea about Shakib’s absence.
“I was informed. He [Shakib] is expected to join tomorrow,” Domingo told a few members of the media.
Interestingly, when asked if he was informed, Akram told The Daily Star yesterday: “I was not informed. Even the coach had asked me about him.”
When asked if he knows whether Shakib would join the camp today, he said: “I don’t know, let’s see.”
The different versions from coach and cricket operations chairman raised the question of how well informed the latter is, given that a player usually informs the coach of his absence from training. On the other hand, if Domingo was indeed informed by Shakib, why would he call Akram for the same information? Perhaps he thought Akram had extra information, an assumption Domingo will probably not be making from now.
