Shakib al Hasan raised ,000 in the fight against novel coronavirus. 

Former Bangladesh skipper Shakib al Hasan raised $24,000 in the fight against novel coronavirus by auctioning the bat he used during the previous edition of Cricket World Cup held in England last year.

A New York-based Bangladeshi, Arif R Hossain emerged as the highest bidder during the online auction held on Wednesday.

Shakib, who has proved his mettle several times in both the department of the game is currently serving a two-year suspension by ICC for failing to report for being approached by a match-fixing syndicate. With one year of his ban suspended, he is due to resume international cricket in October 2020.

The auction comes two days after over 140 workers from his crab farm staged a protest against the cricketer for not being paid.

Responding to the protests, Shakib said he is not involved in the daily operations of the farm but ensured that he would look into the matter. “My co-owners and working partners failed to inform me properly of what was going on over the last few months,” the cricketer was quoted as saying in a report in AFP.

The report further stated that the cricketer stated that around 1.9 million taka ($23,000) have been payed to the workers on Wednesday.

Like every nation, Bangladesh too has been hit by the coronavirus pandemic and has so far reported 4186 positive cases and 127 deaths. but low testing rates have led health experts to believe the real figures are far higher.