Former Bangladesh captain Mohammad Ashraful will play in the Bangladesh Premier League, two months after completing a five-year ban for match-fixing.
The 34-year-old batsman was picked by the Chittagong Vikings franchise during the player draft for the sixth season, which begins on January 5, reported ESPNCricinfo.
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.
Ashraful played 61 Tests, 177 One-Day Internationals and 23 Twenty20 internationals for Bangladesh before being banned.
Ashraful won’t be the only controversial cricketer playing in the Bangladesh Premier League. Australia’s David Warner, who was banned for a year by his country’s cricket board for his role in the ball-tampering scandal earlier this year, was picked up by the Sylhet Sixers. The franchise said that Warner has “paid enough” of a price for his role in the scandal.
With inputs from AFP