Shakib Al Hasan was one of three players fined 15% of their match fees during Tuesday's BPL clash between Fortune Barishal and Rangpur Riders in Dhaka. Shakib and Nurul Hasan were fined for disobeying the umpire's instruction under Article 2.4 of the BCB's code of conduct, while Anamul Haque was penalised for showing dissent at the umpire's decision.
While the BCB release did not pinpoint a specific incident, all three players were involved in an argument just before the start of the second innings.
There was to-and-fro between Barishal opener Chaturanga de Silva and Rangpur captain Nurul shortly before Barishal's chase got underway. Nurul had changed his bowler - from left-arm spinner Rakibul Hasan to offspinner Mahedi Hasan, after learning that left-hander de Silva would take strike. But when Anamul took strike instead of de Silva seeing the change of bowler, Nurul went back to left-armer Rakibul.
The incident took a turn for the worse when Barishal captain Shakib rushed onto the ground to confront the umpires. He argued with on-field umpire Gazi Sohel until finally Rakibul started the off innings against de Silva.
Later in the post-match press conference, Nurul said that he was changing the bowlers after seeing Shakib screaming from the boundary edge. "I was changing the bowlers seeing Shakib bhai screaming from outside. This is the first time I saw (the captain entering the field like that)," he said.
The Barishal manager later said in a statement that Shakib only went to speak to the umpires to figure out what was going on. "According to the rules, the batters decide who will take strike when the bowler is confirmed. Shakib wanted Anamul on strike seeing Mahedi was the bowler. When the umpires weren't allowing them to change strike, Shakib entered the field to speak to them," he said.
All three players admitted to the offence and accepted the sanction proposed by match referee Akhtar Ahmad, and as such, there was no need for formal hearings. In addition to the fines, one demerit point has been added to the disciplinary record of each player.
Previously, Shakib went unpunished in another incident on the BPL's second day when he screamed at the umpires for not giving a wide. Soumya Sarkar too went unscathed despite arguing with the umpires for an lbw decision, which was overturned after his protests.