Mohammad Ashraful Looks for no Shortcuts to Make his Return

After serving his five-year ban on the sidelines, Bangladesh’s Mohammad Ashraful is eyeing a comeback to the national side. However, Ashraful asserted he would not seek for any shortcuts in the meanwhile. In his latest interview, the Bangladeshi cricketer said he is eyeing to take part in Bangladesh Premier League to get in the line of selection.

Of late, Ashraful was able to receive praises from many former greats in his early career. He was prepense as next big thing for Bangladesh cricket after Habibul Bashar.

However, Bangladesh Cricket Board slapped him a ban of five years after he got caught in a spot-fixing scandal. In the 2013 edition of BPL, Bangladeshi cricket received a jolt after the spot-fixing scandal surfaced on.

“Playing in the BPL does matter a lot because it’s big platform [to prove yourself],” Ashraful told reporters on arrival from London. “If you get a chance to play there and perform as well, it becomes easier to get into the national team,” he said.

Initially, a special anti-corruption tribunal slapped Mohammad Ashraful with an eight-year ban. Later, a one-member panel had cut down the number to five, with the last two years to be reprived upon producing a certificate of good conduct from the ICC through participation in the ‘anti-corruption education and training programme.

Mohammad Ashraful was allowed to take part in domestic

Ashraful was allowed to take part in domestic cricket in the last two years. He scored five tons in the Dhaka Premier League and National Cricket League since his return. The five-year ban on Ashraful ended on 13 August and he is hopeful to have a good outing in the National Cricket League.

“NCL will be starting soon. I want to play well in domestic cricket. That would be enough I guess,” Ashraful said. “If I had any matches to play now, I would have a chance to perform and earn a spot in the team. But there are no [domestic] games right now.”

“I want to do something special when the [domestic] season starts and don’t want to take any shortcut to return to the team. I want to return to the team after performing [well] for enough time. If I return to the team after performing well, I can play there for a long time.”