Bangladesh cricket star Shakib Al Hasan slaps fan, Video goes viral

The captain of the Bangladesh men’s national cricket team, Shakib Al Hasan, triggered a huge controversy as he slapped a fan, not long before the news of him winning a parliament seat in his country emerged. Shakib, who is known to lose his cool on the field as well, could be seen giving a hard slap to a fan while being surrounded by a huge number of people. Though it isn’t known exactly when and where the incident took place, it has been claimed by a section of social media users that the altercation might have taken place about a week before the election results came out.

It has been claimed that Shakib slapped the fan in the video during an incident at one of the polling stations. As the Bangladesh star arrived to cast his vote, he was surrounded by fans, and the situation got out of control after a fan tried to grab him from behind. Shakib then decided to slap the fan to handle the situation.

As for the election, Shakib beat his rival by a margin of more than 150,000 votes in his constituency in the western town of Magura, the district’s chief administrator Abu Naser Beg said. “It was a landslide victory,” he said. There is no immediate comment from the cricketer, a candidate of the ruling Awami League party of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is herself widely expected to win a fifth term in power after the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) boycotted the vote.

Shakib, speaking ahead of the election, conceded he was not facing any serious obstacle but told AFP the contest still made him anxious.

“The competition and challenges are always there, be it a small team or big team,” he said.

Shakib’s campaign obliged him to take a temporary leave of absence from cricket.

He has bristled at the suggestion he would not be able to balance his duties as a lawmaker and a cricket captain.

“Did I retire?” he asked during campaigning. “If I haven’t retired, then where does this question come from?”

Shakib is the only person to have been ranked the number-one all-rounder in all three formats simultaneously by the International Cricket Council. (NDTV)