'Bangladesh govt to blame for team missing T20 World Cup': Shakib Al Hasan

Shakib Al Hasan at the EUT20 Belgium event in Mumbai on Wednesday. Pic/Atul Kamble

Former Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hasan has blamed the government for the fiasco that eventually led to the national team missing out on the ICC T20 World Cup which was jointly held in India and Sri Lanka in February and March this year.

"I think that was a big loss, a great miss as far as Bangladesh cricket is concerned because we, as a country, love watching our players playing World Cups, playing matches. We are a cricket loving country. So, a country like Bangladesh not participating in the World Cup was a big miss," Shakib, 39, told reporters on the sidelines of the jersey launch of the EUT20 Belgium, at a city hotel on Wednesday.

"I think was a blunder from the government side that they took the decision not to participate in that World Cup," added the all-rounder, who has played 71 Tests, 247 ODIs and 129 T20Is for Bangladesh, scoring 4609, 7570, and 2551 runs respectively, besides picking 246, 317 and 149 wickets across the three formats.

Meanwhile, Shakib showered praise on the IPL, saying it will give continue to produce big players for India big players for the next 50 years. "I think the pipeline is such in Indian cricket at this moment, this will go on for the next 50 years at least without having any problem. They will keep on producing players because of this tournament. They [players] might struggle in Test cricket because of this though, because everyone wants to play IPL," he concluded.