Former Bangladesh captain Mohammad Ashraful said Monday that has set his sights on a comeback with the national side after his five-year ban for match-fixing ended.
“I am feeling really nice as I was waiting for this day for the last five years. (I told myself) when August 13, 2018 came I would be available for national team again,” Ashraful told AFP from Britain.
“Over the last five years I never felt I wouldn’t be able to come back. I never lacked this confidence. I always felt I would come back,” he said.
Ashraful was fined and banned for eight years — cut on appeal to five — in 2014 for match and spot fixing during a T20 tournament in Bangladesh in 2013.
The Bangladesh Cricket Board partially lifted his ban in 2016, allowing him to play domestic first-class and List A cricket.
But he was still suspended from international and franchise-based Twenty20 cricket for another two years.
Ashraful, who turned 34 in July, showed a glimpse of his talent in domestic 50-over Dhaka Premier League competition last year when he scored five centuries in 13 matches to accumulate 665 runs at an average of 66.50.
