DHAKA: Disgraced former Bangladesh captain Mohammad Ashraful on Sunday shone with the ball on his return to competitive cricket after three years of suspension for match-fixing charges.
Playing for Dhaka Metropolis in the National Cricket League, the domestic first-class tournament, Ashraful grabbed 3-49 against Barisal Division on the first day of the four-day match in the southern city of Khulna.
This was his second outing in the tournament since the Bangladesh Cricket Board partially lifted his ban on August 13, allowing him to play in selected domestic competitions.
Ashraful could neither bat nor bowl in his first match, which saw only 15 overs of action in four days due to rain.
"It's a relief that I could get some play finally," Ashraful told AFP by phone from Khulna. "The wicket looks really very nice here. So I am now waiting for some batting."
Ashraful was initially banned for eight years in 2014 after he tearfully confessed on national television to help fix matches in the scandal-hit Bangladesh Premier League.
The Twenty20 tournament was eventually suspended in the wake of the match-fixing scandal before being resumed in 2015 with six new franchises.
A local appeal panel in September 2014 cut Ashraful's ban to five years including a two-year suspended sentence, meaning he could return to competitive cricket from August 2016.
Comments
Comments are closed.