Legendary Bangladeshi cricketer Shakib Al Hasan is currently with the national team in the United States to participate in the ongoing T20 World Cup. He recently spoke about what it means to have such a stellar career.
“When I started, I didn’t expect to play for so long. Since the start of the T20 Cricket World Cup till this T20 World Cup, I have participated in all of them along with Rohit Sharma. It is a matter of pride for me, and I’m happy that I could represent the country,” Shakib said on Friday.
Shakib also mentioned that he and current India captain Rohit Sharma are the only players to have played in all the T20 World Cups held until now. The Bangladeshi, quite naturally, expressed the desire to keep playing.
“Me and Rohit Sharma are the only players who played all the T20 World Cups. I hope I can play another World Cup, but before that, I would like to perform well in the tournament, and Bangladesh can do better than the previous T20 tournament,” he said.
The left-arm spinner spends most of his time away from Bangladesh in the United States, where his family resides.
“It is alright that the US is my second home. Yet, I think we will get that because earlier, when we played in the West Indies and America,. We did well, and we played in Florida, we did well,” said Shakib.
“We always get favour there because those pitches are similar to ours. I hope we will get an advantage in both places,” he said.
“The only thing that I feel is that here it should be the same competition between bat and ball, and it should not be one-sided, and normally that is not the case with World Cups, and I feel it would be the same this time around.”
He was also asked how he likes that he won his seat in the Magura constituency in the last general elections and is a Member of Parliament.
“For me, being a member of the parliament is difficult (compared to playing cricket) because I have been playing for a long time since my childhood and feel very comfortable with it; while politics is new to me, being an MP,” said Shakib, who is eyeing to have support from Bangladeshi fans in the showpiece event.
“There will be a lot of Bangladeshi fans there (in the World Cup), and I hope they will give us full support, and this support will help us, and we will be able to give good results,” he said. “I don’t want to see anything besides my name, and I only want to contribute to the Bangladesh team. I hope to do well for Bangladesh in this World Cup,” he signed off.
