Bangladesh former captain Mohammad Ashraful eyes national team comeback after five-year ban for match fixing

Bangladesh former captain Mohammad Ashraful eyes national team comeback after five-year ban for match fixing

(FASTNEWS|COLOMBO) Former Bangladesh captain Mohammad Ashraful said on Monday that has set his sights on a comeback with the national side after his five-year ban for match-fixing ended.

“I am feeling really nice as I was waiting for this day for the last five years. (I told myself) when August 13, 2018, came I would be available for the national team again,” Ashraful told Media.

“Over the last five years, I never felt I wouldn’t be able to come back. I never lacked this confidence. I always felt I would come back,” he said.

Ashraful was fined and banned for eight years – cut on appeal to five – in 2014 for match and spot-fixing during a T20 tournament in Bangladesh in 2013.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board partially lifted his ban in 2016, allowing him to play domestic first-class and List A cricket.

But he was still suspended from international and franchise-based Twenty20 cricket for another two years.

Ashraful, who turned 34 in July, showed a glimpse of his talent in domestic 50-over Dhaka Premier League competition last year when he scored five centuries in 13 matches to accumulate 665 runs at an average of 66.50.