Newly-appointed sports minister Aminul Haque wants the legal wrangles surrounding Shakib Al Hasan and Mashrafe Mortaza wrapped up quickly, so the two former Bangladesh captains can, if they wish, slip back into cricket without further delay.
Haque, once Bangladesh’s national football skipper and now part of the 49-strong cabinet sworn in after the BNP’s election win on 12 February, told reporters on Tuesday that the government is keen to “move on” from the politically-charged cases lodged against the pair when the Awami League administration collapsed in 2024.
“The government will deal with the matter concerning Shakib and Mashrafe. We will remain tolerant and flexible on them,” Haque said. “The cases against them will be handled by the government. We want Shakib to return [to Bangladesh]. We hope those will be resolved swiftly so they can return. We also want Shakib and Mashrafe back in Bangladesh cricket.”
That is a clear change in tone. Both men were MPs for the Awami League and, once the student-led uprising toppled the government in August 2024, they found themselves entangled in a tangle of corruption and misuse-of-power allegations.
Shakib heads Stateside – and backtracks on retirement
Shakib, now based largely in the United States, has not set foot in Dhaka since May 2024. International cricket has been on hold for him since that year’s World Cup, yet he has continued to turn out in franchise tournaments – PSL, CPL, you name it. In December, speaking on the Beard Before Wicket podcast, he publicly rowed back on the retirement call he made in late 2024.
“I am officially not retired from all formats. This is the first time I’ll be revealing that. My plan is to go back to Bangladesh, play one full series of ODI, Test, and T20, and retire,” he said. “I mean, [I can] retire from all formats in a series. So it can start from T20I, ODI and Test, or Test, ODI, T20I. Either way, I’m fine, but I want to play a whole series and retire. That’s what I want.”
For that plan even to begin, the court cases – some civil, some criminal – must first be sorted. Haque’s promise of a “tolerant and flexible” approach is therefore significant, even if experienced court watchers warn that Bangladesh’s judicial wheels can still grind painfully slowly.
Mortaza off the radar
Mashrafe’s situation is murkier. The former fast bowler has stayed out of view since August 2024. Friends say he spends most of his time in Narail, but there has been no public sighting for months. Before his disappearance he was still plugging away in the Dhaka Premier League despite bowing out of international cricket back in 2020.
In his absence, rumours swirl: is he nursing injuries, lying low on legal advice, or simply fed up with politics? For now, nothing concrete. Haque’s comments, though, hint that officialdom would welcome him back on a cricket field rather than in a courtroom.
BCB election row bubbling in the background
Haque also took a swipe at last year’s Bangladesh Cricket Board elections, which produced a new leadership under former wicketkeeper Aminul Islam.
“I have said it before and I will say it again: it was a questionable election of the BCB,” the minister remarked, before acknowledging he must now work with the very board he criticised. A sit-down meeting, he said, will happen soon in a bid to “move to a better stage”.
Islam reportedly left the country last week – another subplot in an already convoluted cricket-politics saga.
What happens next?
The immediate marker will be whether prosecutors move to drop or at least streamline charges against Shakib and Mashrafe. If that occurs, Shakib could realistically target Bangladesh’s mid-year home programme for his farewell series. As for Mashrafe, any return – sporting or political – depends first on simply reappearing in public.
For supporters, a pragmatic resolution would close a turbulent chapter and, perhaps, allow two of the country’s modern icons to bow out on their own terms.
