Bangladeshi cricket captain Shakib Al Hasan gained a seat within the nation’s parliament Sunday after a landslide victory in a normal election boycotted by the opposition, an official mentioned. The 36-year all-rounder, who leads the nation in all codecs of the sport, beat his rival by a margin of greater than 150,000 votes in his constituency within the western city of Magura, the district’s chief administrator Abu Naser Beg mentioned. “It was a landslide victory,” he mentioned. There isn’t any speedy remark from the cricketer, a candidate of the ruling Awami League celebration of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who’s herself extensively anticipated to win a fifth time period in energy after the principle opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) boycotted the vote.

Shakib, talking forward of the election, conceded he was not dealing with any severe impediment however advised AFP the competition nonetheless made him anxious.

“The competition and challenges are always there, be it a small team or big team,” he mentioned.

Shakib’s marketing campaign obliged him to take a short lived go away of absence from cricket.

He has bristled on the suggestion he wouldn’t have the ability to stability his duties as a lawmaker and a cricket captain.

“Did I retire?” he requested throughout campaigning. “If I haven’t retired, then where does this question come from?”

Shakib is the one particular person to have been ranked the number-one all-rounder in all three codecs concurrently by the International Cricket Council.

He was a teen when he was recruited to the nation’s premier sports activities academy and simply 19 at his worldwide debut in 2006 as a batting all-rounder.

By the next yr, he was already a star when he hit a fifty in a David-and-Goliath present towards India within the World Cup — a victory nonetheless spoken of reverentially by Bangladeshi followers.

He has additionally garnered a status for ill-discipline, with a rebellious streak that after noticed him threaten a spectator with a bat, and that earned him a three-match ban after making a lewd gesture to a tv crew.

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