Bangladesh's veteran all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan was handed a two-year ban (with a year's suspension) last year over failing to report corrupt approaches. He had accepted three charges of breaching the ICC Anti-Corruption Code, according to a statement released by the sport's governing body.
The breaches included failure to report fixing approaches in a tri-series between Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, and an Indian Premier League (IPL) match between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kings XI Punjab in 2018.
In an interview with Deep Das Gupta for ESPNCricinfo, Shakib opened up on the ban, saying that people are "bound to make mistakes," and that recovering and making a comeback from the mistakes is more important.
“You have to be honest. You just can’t lie to the people and pretend different things. Whatever happened has happened. People are bound to make mistakes. You are not 100%. The important thing is how well you can comeback from those mistakes. You can tell other people not to make those mistakes. Tell them the path so that they never take those paths,” said the Bangladesh cricketer.
Talking about his career, Shakib reflected on the controversies he was involved in, acknowledging that he might be at fault in a few. However, he said that he has gained maturity with age.
"I think [it’s] combination of both [controversy following him, and vice versa]. I got the responsibility so early in my career, I was bound to make mistakes. I was captain when I was 21. I made a lot of mistakes, and there are so many things that people think about me. Now I realise that it was my fault in some areas, and in some I was misunderstood. But I get it completely. It is part and parcel in the subcontinent,” Hasan said.
“Of course I will try to minimise [my mistakes] as much as I can, but by the time I got married, and now I have two kids, I understand the game and life better. It has made me a calmer person than I was in my twenties. I have changed quite a lot. People won’t see me doing a lot of mistakes now. My two daughters changed my life completely."
