Spotlight on Shakib Al Hasan Even in The Dark

Spotlight on Shakib Al Hasan Even in The Dark

The brightest of stars don't always need clear skies to draw attention and make their presence known to the planet . Such are often said about Shakib Al Hasan, undoubtedly the brightest star of Bangladesh cricket, because the premier all-rounder also doesn't always necessarily got to be involved during a cricketing activity to hog the spotlight.

The 33-year-old all-rounder always seems to seek out his way into buzzing topics.

 

Spotlight on Shakib Al Hasan Even in The Dark

While often it's his blistering centuries, a powerful five-wicket haul or a fantastic effort while fielding that catches everyone's eye, it's also not rare to ascertain him make headlines for off-the-field misdemeanours.

Be it reacting too strongly to the Mirpur crowd's booing by making an inappropriate gesture during a big as a World Cup game (after the group stage match against West Indies within the 2011 edition) or venting his anger towards the camera which had zoomed on him quite once while he was within the 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 thanks to the coronavirus pandemic. Even during this era , with almost no outdoor activities happening round the globe, it had been Shakib whose name came up within the news and headlines quite the other Bangladeshi athlete within the past few days.

Shakib, who has been banned -- a two-year sentence imposed by the ICC with one among those suspended -- since October last year, made the headlines when he announced himself to be in self-isolation at a hotel within the us through a video on social media on March 21. The premier all-rounder travelled to the US to be together with his family but not before imposing a 14-day isolation period on himself as advised so as to fight the coronavirus pandemic currently sweeping the world .

One would be wrong to think that the all-rounder won't make the news a minimum of during that 14-day period of self-isolation as Shakib's trait as an all-rounder once more came to the fore. this point for an off-the-field noble initiative, because 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 toward providing needy families with groceries and also completing community based services like disinfecting public places.

Not long then , on April 3, Shakib was once more within the news -- again for an honest reason. this point the Shakib Al Hasan Foundation announced their collaboration with Bangladesh's leading manufacturing engineering company, Confidence Group, to supply Taka 20 lakh worth of coronavirus testing kits to recognised hospitals and medical institutions across the country.

However, subsequent time Shakib made the headlines, it had been 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 workers who had demonstrated a movement. it had been an equivalent day when Shakib's partner within the farm Sahagir Hossain Pavel also informed The Daily Star that the movement was a shocking one as that they had requested the workers for time till April 30 to pay their dues. Sahagir, who mentioned that Shakib wasn't personally involved 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 twice . The premier all-rounder had announced through an extended Facebook post that he resolved things by taking full responsibility to pay all the due salaries from his own personal funds and with none 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 possess instigated the workers into taking the streets. Not only that, Shakib also took a swing at the media personnel, blaming them for blowing the entire 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 an equivalent media for his noble gesture of selling one among 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 a web auction arranged by a page named 'Auction 4 Action' on social media. Shakib had expressed his willingness to place his favourite bat up for auction and donate the funds for battling the coronavirus crisis before that.

Shakib's good deeds -- be it leading Bangladesh to victories single-handedly or raising funds and taking initiatives to assist the needy ones sometimes of crisis -- have always are available a bag mixed with some negative events -- starting from making inappropriate gestures towards fans to lashing out at media for a fault that has clearly his name involved. The previous couple of days were just another example of his idiosyncrasy and should be that's the rationale the spotlight always seems to seek out Shakib even when he's off the sector .