Bangladesh lifts Mohammad Ashraful's ban from domestic cricket

Johannesburg, Aug.13 (ANI): The Bangladesh's cricket authorities have partially lifted the ban on former skipper Mohammad Ashraful, thus making him eligible to feature in only selected domestic competitions. Reflecting on the news, Yasin Patel, a British lawyer who represented Ashraful during the trial, confirmed that the Bangladeshi cricketer would be eligible to play in domestic cricket from August 13. He, however, said that Ashraful would remain ineligible to represent the country in the international cricket or the BPL until atleast 2018. Meanwhile, Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) chief executive officer Nizamuddin Chowdhury said that they have now sought clarification from the ICC to determine the domestic competitions in which Ashraful would feature. The 32-year-old cricketer had received an eight-year suspension in 2014 after he confessed on national television to helping fix matches in the scandal-hit Bangladesh Premier League (BPL). As a result of it, the Twenty20 tournament was eventually suspended before being resumed in 2015 with six new franchises, Sport24 reported. Ashraful, however, has had his ban reduced to five years including a two-year suspended sentence through a local appeal panel in September 2014. Ashraful, who made his debut at the national level at the age of 17, has featured in 61 Tests, 177 ODIs and 23 T20 international matches for the country. (ANI)