In scenes rarely seen at a top-level cricket match, Shakib Al Hasan's temper flared up on two different occasions in one Dhaka Premier League (DPL) match on Friday, with footage showing him kicking the stumps first, and later uprooting a whole set of them and flinging them to the ground. Shakib, the captain of Mohammedan Sporting Club, in the game against Abahani Limited, was first furious at the umpire's decision to deny him an lbw appeal against Mushfiqur Rahim, and was then angered by the umpires calling for the covers with one ball remaining in the sixth over as the rain came down.
As the players walked off the field in the rain break, photographs and video clips on social media showed Shakib also getting into a war of words with Abahani coach Khaled Mahmud, who is also a BCB director. It appeared that Mahmud had to be pulled away from what looked like a shouting match with the Mohammedan camp.
The match duly resumed and Mohammedan went on to complete victory, but even at the point the players went off due to the rain (five balls after the five-over mark, which constituted a completed match), Shakib's team was well ahead of the equation as per DLS method. So, exactly why Shakib reacted in that way is unknown.
Shortly after the match, Shakib wrote an apology note on his official Facebook page. "Dear fans and followers, I am extremely sorry for losing my temper and ruining the match for everyone and especially those who are watching from home," the message read. "An experienced player like me should not have reacted that way but sometimes against all odds it happens unfortunately. I apologise to the teams, management, tournament officials and organizing committee for this human error. Hopefully, I won't be repeating this again in the future. Thanks and love you all."
Off the last ball of the fifth over, Shakib struck Rahim on the pads, only for umpire Imran Parvez to turn down the appeal. Immediately Shakib kicked the stumps at the non-striker's end. He argued with the umpire, with some of the Mohammedan players surrounding the duo. Then the fielders moved on as it was the end of the over.
Not long after, after the fifth ball of the sixth over, umpire Mahfuzur Rahman indicated to the groudsmen to bring on the covers as a light rain had begun. Shakib ran in towards the umpire from his fielding position and ripped out all three stumps from the non-strikers' end and flung them on the ground. After a short argument when other Mohammedan players gathered around and some seemingly gestured that it was not raining hard enough for play to stop, Shakib once again picked up a stump and speared it into the ground at the umpire's feet.
After the game, Kazi Inam Ahmed, the chairman of the Cricket Committee of Dhaka Metropolis (CCDM) - the BCB sub-committee that oversees all Dhaka leagues - termed the incident "unfortunate", and said he expected the umpires to submit their report by the end of the day (Friday). A decision on what action will be taken is likely either late on Friday or early Saturday.
"We saw there was a lot of excitement in this Abahani-Mohammedan game, and there were some incidents involving Shakib Al Hasan. It was streamed live on Facebook and YouTube, so I am sure all of you saw it. It is unfortunate. We expect players to keep their emotions under control even in the heated moments in cricket," Ahmed said. "This is not the example we want to see from Bangladesh's professional, international players.
"Like international matches, we also have a playing-control team, which consists of the match referee and umpires. We expect their report by tonight. The rules are in place, so whatever comes [out], we will act accordingly."
Mohammad Isam is ESPNcricinfo's Bangladesh correspondent. @isam84