Bangladesh cricketer Shakib auctions bat for virus victims

NEW YORK: Former Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan raised almost $24,000 for the country’s coronavirus campaign by auctioning the bat he used to score 606 runs at the World Cup last year.

The winning bidder at the online auction was a New York-based Bangladeshi, said Arif R. Hossain, co-founder of an organisation established to raise funds for charity.

“It was our first initiative. We are really happy by the response,” Hossain said while speaking to an international news agency. He said the money raised would be given to a foundation started by Shakib Al Hasan.

Shakib is considered as one of the best all-rounders in the game. He was banned for two years in October last year for failing to report a match-fixing attempt after he was approached by a bookie. He is due to resume international cricket in October 2020 as one year of his sentence was suspended.

 

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This is a very special bat to me, but my people are even more special to me. So I have decided to auction my SG bat through which I scored 1500 runs and performed well at the ICC World Cup with all your blessings. You can bid for the bat tomorrow at the facebook page of Auction4Action where I will be live at 10pm on Wednesday, April 22, 2020. Let’s bid as high as possible and help as many people as we can. Only as a team can we win this. See you all there!

A post shared by shakib al hasan (@shaki_b75) on Apr 21, 2020 at 11:16am PDT

The auction came two days after more than 140 workers at a crab farm owned by Shakib staged a protest to complain about not being paid. They defied a nationwide virus lockdown and chanted slogans before being dispersed by police.

Shakib is revered in Bangladesh for his cricketing prowess. He has denied being involved in the day-to-day operations of the farm but said he would take action.

“My co-owners and working partners failed to inform me properly of what was going on over the last few months,” he said in a statement. He said he paid the employees around 1.9 million taka this week.

Bangladesh has officially reported 4186 coronavirus infections and 127 deaths, but low testing rates have led health experts to believe the real figures are far higher.