Shanto ‘wants’ to quit captaincy

Bangladesh cricket team reached Chattogram yesterday ahead of the series-deciding second Test against South Africa starting on Tuesday which could also be the last outing for Najmul Hossain Shanto as the Tigers' skipper.

On Saturday, it was reported by Cricbuzz, a cricket website, that Shanto is unlikely to lead Bangladesh after the conclusion of the ongoing home Test series against South Africa.

However, Bangladesh Cricket Board's (BCB) chief executive officer Nizamuddin Chowdhury, when contacted, said that he had no knowledge about Shanto wanting to step down nor has he received any official letter from the captain in this regard.

But later in the day, national team selector Hannan Sarkar confirmed to The Daily Star that the selectors know about Shanto's plan to quit as captain from all three formats.

"I have heard about the matter [Shanto wanting to quit captaincy] but didn't get anything official like a letter. He may have informed verbally," Hannan said yesterday.

It was learnt that the board wants Shanto to continue as skipper and are trying to convince him to revert his decision.

"Definitely the BCB would want to hold discussions. Shanto has been captaining for some time now. We have invested time on him," said BCB director Nazmul Abedeen Fahim told the media yesterday.

"Cricket board would have to take big steps if they want to prepare another captain. We need to sit down and decide whether to request him to continue as skipper," he added.

Shanto was quoted by Cricbuzz to be 'still waiting' to hear back from BCB president Faruque Ahmed on the matter, who is currently out of the country to perform Umrah.

Shanto was appointed as Bangladesh's all-format skipper for one year in February and was expected to lead the side in next year's ICC Champions Trophy.

As a skipper, the 26-year-old has so far captained the Tigers in nine Tests, nine ODIs and 24 T20Is. He led the side to three Test wins which included a 2-0 series win in Pakistan. He also won three ODIs and 10 T20Is at the same time.

Pressure of captaincy has seemingly dented his batting in Tests and T20Is. The left-hander averages 25.76 in Tests as skipper, slightly lower than his career average of 28.68 and in T20Is, he averages 18.76 as skipper while his career average stands at 22.85.

The 50-over format is the exception to this trend, where he averages 52.00 as captain, much higher than his career average of 33.29.

Recently, Chandika Hathurusingha was sacked by the BCB under disciplinary grounds, for an incident Shanto claims he did not see first hand. Phil Simmons replaced Hathurusingha before the South Africa series.

He also fell into hot waters with agitated fans for saying that Shakib Al Hasan not getting to play his final Test in Mirpur against South Africa was 'unfortunate' and that the all-rounder's farewell is 'pending'.

If Shanto does step down, Bangladesh would lose their regular captain just months before an ICC event for the second time in a little over a year. Last year, Tamim Iqbal had similarly quit ODI captaincy in July around three months before the ICC ODI World Cup.