We had no prior knowledge of ICC investigation on Shakib: BCB chief

Bangladesh Cricket Board chief Nazmul Hassan has claimed that the BCB had no inkling about the ICC's anti-corruption investigation of its Test and T20 captain Shakib Al Hasan, who was handed a two-year ban for failing to report three approaches by a suspected Indian bookie.

Twelve months of this ban is a suspended sentence which will come into effect if Shakib fails to comply with the anti-corruption code of the International Cricket Council (ICC). The ICC announced the ban on Tuesday.

"I want to state something clearly and that is that neither I nor anyone from the BCB knew anything about the investigation, which has been going on from January," Hassan was quoted as saying by the local media.

"The ACU, an independent body, communicated with Shakib. He informed me two or three days ago following the meeting with the players regarding the strike," he insisted.

The one-year ban that he has to serve will keep Shakib out of next year's Indian Premier League (IPL) and also the World T20 to be held in Australia from October 18 to November 15 the same year.

The world's No.1 ODI all-rounder failed to report the approaches made by suspected bookie Deepak Aggarwal, who had asked Shakib to provide information on team composition and strategy on three separate occasions.

One of the approaches was made on April 26, 2018 when his IPL franchise Sunrisers Hyderabad was to take on Kings XI Punjab. Sunrisers won the game by 13 runs.

Aggarwal's other two approaches were during the Bangladesh Premier League when Shakib was playing for Dhaka Dynamites in 2017, followed by the tri-series against Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka in January 2018.

Aggarwal wanted to meet Shakib but the player didn't oblige as "...following their conversations, he had the feeling that Aggarwal was a bookie."