BCB Slaps a Six-Month Ban on Sabbir Rahman for His Repeated Off-Field Issues

Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has imposed a six-month ban on the Tigers’ top order batsman Sabbir Rahman for his repeated off-field issues on Saturday (September 1). He was again alleged for abusing a fan on social media platform Facebook.

Interestingly, it is not the first time that Sabbir has come under the scanner for his off-field issues.

Sabbir Rahman and Mosaddek Hossain attended a disciplinary committee of BCB:

Rahman alongside another cricketer Mosadeek Hossain attended a disciplinary committee hearing of the Board. Hossain was called following allegations from his wife.

Well, the disciplinary committee hasn’t taken any decision against Mosaddek. He was alleged to have taken 10 Lakh Taka as a dowry from his wife. The matter is still under scrutiny.

However, BCB came hard at Sabbir for his repeated issues. The ban will come in effect from Sunday.

“We recommended six-month ban from international cricket, and it will be implemented from tomorrow,” BCB director Ismail Haider was quoted as saying by the reporters after the hearing.

“He is yet to play domestic cricket for his earlier ban that is expected to end this September. But today we had taken this decision for his Facebook post. Though he said that it was hacked, we don’t have the mechanism to verify that,” he added.

Ismail Haider said that a repeat of this behaviour could increase the ban for Sabbir Rahman

Ismail added the ban might be expanded if this sort of behaviour continues from Sabbir’s side. He has been charged in the past for many issues. The right-handed batsman had earlier physically assaulted a fan during a National Cricket League division match in Rajshahi. He also used abusive words while replying to a Facebook fan.

Sabbir was also alleged to have hit his teammate Mehidy Hasan during the series against Afghanistan. He was also denied a national contract and was handed with a fine of 20 lakh taka.

In 2016, he was also fined 30 per cent of his Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) contract fees after taking a female guest to his hotel room.

“Now he is banned from international cricket, but we have warned him that if he continues in this manner, he will be handed with a lengthy ban,” Ismail said. “He repented for his action. According to our finding, he has lost around Tk 1.5 crore due to his earlier punishments. Some rectify, and some don’t. Probably he has been lacking in guidance while there is a possibility that he is mixing with wrong people,” he added.

The fan was shocked with Sabbir’s behaviour :

The incident happened during the ODI series between Bangladesh and hosts Windies in July. Earlier the fan who was hurled foul language by Sabbir on the condition of anonymity said that it was shocking for an international player to issue a physical threat to a fan.

“It was simply shocking,” the victim told Cricbuzz.

“I just expressed my feeling on my post and one of junior tagged it to him, and we received a similar reply. I would not have taken it seriously, but as there was a threat of physical assault I got scared and shared it,” said the MBA student of Dhaka University.