What if Ashraful did not do fixing?

In 2013, the whole Bangladesh cricketing arena got shook as Mohammad Ashraful's fixing scandal came into light. The former skipper was caught red-handed Acsu, the International Cricket Council's (ICC) anti-corruption unit. 

Ashraful did not just commit fixing in franchise leagues but also for the national side. He himself admitted of doing it thrice while playing for Bangladesh, let alone the ones he did in the franchise leagues. 

A question begets here, what if he did not fix? What if one of the country's finest talents did not turn to the dark side? 

Ashraful has a better, longer career 

Ashraful played for Bangladesh for around 12 years. Indeed, it is a long career but after debuting at 16, he still had a lot of time in his career as he was only 29 at the time of his ban. 

If he had not taken the route to fixing, he could have done more justice to the potential he had. He still holds the record of youngest Test centurion but after that, he only managed to score eight tons in international cricket in the next decade or so. 

Not just centuries, Ashraful averaged 24 and 22 in Tests and ODIs respectively, which is not even ordinary but below that. 

Bangladesh benefits more

Surely, Ashraful has been pivotal in some of Bangladesh's most memorable early day wins. But still, those are very few compared to the number of matches he has played. And in the many matches where he threw his wicket away, there rise the questions if he had done that willingly. 

If he had managed to do justice to his talents, Bangladesh would have had a far better batting lineup at their disposal. Bangladesh craved for a no. 3 batsman for a long time but could not find a proper one till Shakib Al Hasan stepped up in 2018. But if Ashraful had decided to stay true to the game, Bangladesh might have had done better with their batting lineup.