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When Shakib forgot to say cheese
Mohammad Isam
Bangladesh's biggest player will be missing from the team's official World Cup picture - and all because he'd left the ground before the photo session took place. It's left the picture with a legend-sized hole and also left the BCB president fairly angry about it.
Shakib Al Hasan, who had arrived in Dhaka on Sunday and had come to the Shere Bangla National Stadium to report to the team management, apparently left before the team gathered for the photo on the outfield. BCB president Nazmul Hassan said that he came to know Shakib was informed of the team's schedule on what was officially the final day of training in Dhaka, before the team's departure for Dublin, to play a tri-series against Ireland and West Indies, on May 1. And with the players getting Tuesday off, the BCB had crammed all their programmes, including the captain's press conference, team lunch with the president and directors, the photo sessions and other commercial-related work for Monday.
"It is disappointing, what else can I say?" Hassan said. "It was the team's photo session. I came and asked about him. I didn't know he had arrived last night. I called him, and he said he is going to come to my house at night. I said to him to come to the ground. He said I have already left. I asked everyone here, and they said Shakib was informed of the photo session. He didn't turn up for training but we hoped for his presence in the photo session. But he wasn't here.
"I think the rest of the team is used to it. What else can I say? I think it is his misfortune that he couldn't be in the team photo before the team leaves for the World Cup. There's no question about [giving him too much leeway]. The team is leaving day after tomorrow, so we don't want to talk too much about it. But it is definitely disappointing."
Shakib didn't respond to ESPNcricinfo's message regarding the BCB chief's reaction.
Despite having some run-ins with the BCB on several other issues, Shakib is not known to have missed any official team photos or similar affairs in the past.
