The former Awami League lawmaker has been living in the US since Hasina’s government \u200cwas toppled<\/p>\n
Bangladeshi cricketer and former lawmaker Shakib Al Hasan. Photo: file <\/p>\n
Bangladeshi cricket great Shakib Al Hasan, an ally of ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina, said he is ready to return from a two-year exile, face trial on charges \u200bincluding murder\u00a0and play a farewell series if the government guarantees his safety.<\/p>\n
Shakib, a former lawmaker for Hasina’s Awami League, has been living in the United States (US) since her government \u200cwas toppled in a deadly student-led uprising in August 2024. Now 39, the player has not yet retired from international cricket and said he still hopes to play a farewell series at home and represent his country at the 2027 one-day World Cup.<\/p>\n
The former Bangladeshi captain’s case highlights the wider fallout from Hasina’s ouster, which has left scores of her allies facing criminal charges and unable to return to Bangladesh. His return would test whether Prime Minister Tarique Rahman’s government will accommodate figures from the former ruling \u200bparty \u2014 an open question as Hasina herself has announced plans to go back in December despite having been given a death sentence there.<\/p>\n
“If I get the clearance from the government that my security \u200bwill be ensured, I am happy to go back, face the court trial and everything that’s needed to be done,” Shakib told Reuters<\/em> by phone from Sri Lanka, \u2060where he is playing franchise cricket.<\/p>\n “I know I haven’t done anything,” he said, giving the most detailed account yet of his two years abroad.<\/p>\n Read: <\/strong>Former Bangladesh cricket captain Shakib’s home attacked after Hasina media event<\/a><\/p>\n Hasina, who has been living in India, was sentenced to death in absentia \u200bover the crackdown on the Bangladesh protests that killed about 1,400 people, according to the United Nations. She has told Reuters<\/em> that she and other Awami League leaders plan to return to Bangladesh voluntarily in December.<\/p>\n Shakib said he \u200bwanted to go home immediately, but failing that would try to return alongside her.<\/p>\n “Whatever the captain says, we follow her,” he said. “I think they will decide it better, and we will follow the instructions given to us.”<\/p>\n Shakib defended his virtual appearance at a Delhi press conference on Wednesday alongside Hasina, after which his unoccupied house in Bangladesh was attacked, saying he had called only for peace and Bangladesh’s progress and had no regrets.<\/p>\n He said he had written, through a lawyer, to the Bangladeshi interior, law and sports \u200bministries under the previous interim government as well as to the police, seeking to have what he described as fabricated charges against him dropped, but had no response. Shakib said he was keen to talk to Rahman \u200babout returning.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Rahman said Shakib was facing the consequences of being a “member of that fallen, defeated, and fugitive fascist government”.<\/p>\n “There is absolutely nothing the current government can do to regain support for Shakib Al Hasan in the heart \u200cof the people of \u2060Bangladesh,” Rahman’s press secretary, AAM Saleh, told Reuters<\/em> in a statement.<\/p>\n “The domestic laws of Bangladesh apply equally to everyone, regardless of identity or status. In the eyes of the law, Shakib Al Hasan is an accused person, and he must surrender before the courts of Bangladesh to face the judicial process.”<\/p>\n