Sabbir Rahman is set to be banned from playing international cricket for six months
Image courtesy of: ESPNcricinfo
The Bangladesh Cricket Board’s (BCB) disciplinary committee has recommended that batsman Sabbir Rahman be banned from playing international cricket for six months.
The recommendation comes after the 26-year-old, who has already been dropped from Bangladesh’s Asia Cup squad, allegedly verbally abusing and threatening two fans on social media.
It is understood that Sabbir used foul language and threatened a fan with physical harm.
The fan had posted a sarcastic comment on the Facebook account of “Shabbir Rahaman Roman”, which is believed to be the Bangladesh batsman’s personal account.
Another user subsequently tagged Sabbir in the comment made by the fan.
It is understood that Sabbir subsequently replied to the duo, who were also blocked from accessing the account.
While the disciplinary committee has given their recommendation, it now needs to be approved by BCB president Nazmul Hassan.
“We have recommended to the board president that Sabbir Rahman should be suspended from international cricket for six months,” BCB director Ismail Haider Mallick was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo. “He repented that he would never do such a thing again. He also admitted to a lot of things.
“This is by no means a lesser punishment. Every player has a dream to represent the country. He was banned from domestic cricket because of his previous offence. We called him this time for a recent incident on Facebook. He said that his account was hacked but we took into account other incidents, some of which he has admitted to be true.”
Mallick added that stricter punishments will be imposed on Sabbir should he find himself in hot water again in the future.
Mallick’s warning comes as Sabbir has been punished by the BCB on three occasions, which includes this incident, since 2016.
“If there’s a repeat of such incidents, he will be serving longer suspensions,” Mallick said. “He had a loss of nearly 1.5 crore in the previous punishment. Some people get their act straight, some don’t. The board president has made it clear that we will be strict on discipline.”