Shanto not aware of Hathurusingha assaulting a player

Bangladesh captain Najmul Hossain Shanto said he has no knowledge of former coach Chandika Hathurusingha assaulting a cricketer during the ODI World Cup in India in 2023.

Hathurusingha has recently been sacked as Bangladesh coach, with the Faruque Ahmed-led Bangladesh Cricket Board citing two reasons – assault of a player during the said tournament, and taking more leave than contract allowed.

The Sri Lankan has since refuted the allegations, raising questions about the motive of the new BCB president.

In an open letter, Hathurusingha said the allegation of assault was only based on a 'YouTuber's claims' and that there was neither any video footage of the incident nor any public testimony from the alleged victim.

When asked for his statement on the issue during a press conference on Sunday, ahead of the first Test against South Africa, Shanto said: "I really don't know (alleged assault) this. Honestly, I don't know about this."

Shanto was the skipper during the ODI World Cup where the alleged incident took place. A fact-finding committee over the team's poor performance submitted a report to the previous governing body, but the report has not been made public yet.

Former president Nazmul Hassan Papon, however, had said that the allegation was baseless.

Shanto was further asked what action he would take if an incident like that happened in future. In reply, the Bangladesh captain categorically said, "Anything like that won't happen."

Shanto analysed Hathurusingha's second tenure as a mixture of positive and negative results but said they were not willing to dwell in the past.