ACB Removes Playing-Ban On Mohammad Shahzad
Feb 27, 2020 at 1:18 AM
On Wednesday (26th February), Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) Disciplinary Committee has announced that they have lifted the one-year ban on the wicketkeeper-batsman Mohammad Shahzad.
Mohammad Shahzad was one of the top batsmen in Afghanistan national cricket team. He is the most T20I (1,936 runs) and international run-scorer (4,732 runs) for Afghanistan. Before his ban from cricket, he was also the most ODI run-scorer (2,727 runs) for Afghanistan. At present, Mohammad Nabi (2,782 runs) is holding the record of most ODI run-scorer for this team as he is just 55 runs away from Shahzad.
Mohammad Shahzad last played for Afghanistan in ICC CWC 2019
The 33-year-old Mohammad Shahzad last played for Afghanistan in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019. During early of that tournament, Shahzad was reportedly faced knee injury. Though he played the first two matches of his team in that tournament, soon after that he was sent back to home citing the fitness issues.
However, later, Mohammad Shahzad publicly claimed that he was fit enough to play matches. It created chaos in Afghanistan cricket.
Later, it was reported that Shahzad breached the ACB’s code of conduct for travelling and practising out of the country several times without taking any permission from the ACB. Due to this reason, the board suspended him from cricket for one year. While that suspension period started on 10th August 2019, the suspension period would have run till early August 2020.
However, recently, Mohammad Shahzad lodged a mercy appeal to the board chairman Mr.Farhan Yusefzai and also promised not to repeat the mistake. The board has accepted that appeal and lift his suspension prior to almost five months before the ban period complete.
From Wednesday, Mohammad Shahzad is now eligible to play all forms of cricket for the country subject to his fitness report. However, his contract ban will continue till early August 2020. Whatever this ban-lift news will definitely give the massive boost in the Afghanistan national cricket team.
During this ban period, Shahzad participated in the Abu Dhabi T10 2019 and Bangladesh Premier League 2019/20.