The Bangladesh ruling party Awami League on Monday announced that ODI skipper Mashrafe Mortaza will contest in the next month’s general elections. A spokesperson of the party stated that the 35-year-old cricketer has been given the “green light” by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who will be seeking a third consecutive term on December 30. According to news agency AFP, the cricketer will contest elections from Narail, which is also his hometown district in western Bangladesh.
Several newspapers on Monday also ran the picture of Mashrafe alongside Hasina on their front page.
Responding to this development, Bangladesh cricket board said that there was no prohibition on active players trying their hand at politics. Speaking to AFP, the Bangladesh Cricket Board spokesman Jalal Yunus said, “To run in an election is his constitutional right. If he wants to exercise these rights, we have no issue.” He further said, “We expect him to keep the balance between his playing career and politics.”
Mashrafe is widely expected to retire after the World Cup in 2019. He has already retired from T20Is and has not played a Test match since 2009. Some fans welcomed his decision but others worried it would tarnish his reputation.
“I may be wrong, but this is the worst decision of his life,” one fan, Omar Faruq, wrote on Mashrafe’s fan page on Facebook.
