Dhaka: Bangladesh national cricket team’s former captain Mohammad Ashraful, who faced five years ban for match-fixing in Bangladesh Premiere League, has become father of a baby girl.

His wife Anika Taslima Orchi gave birth to their first child at a hospital in Dhaka at about 12:11am on Monday.  

Excited Ashraful took no time to share the good news on social media with his fans.

Ashraful on Monday posted on Facebook a photograph of his wife and newly born daughter, ‘Alhamdulillah (all praises for Allah), our new baby has arrived 12:11am. My wife and daughter are very well. Please keep us in your prayers.’

Ashraful and Orchi couple also gladly announced the name of their daughter Areeba Tasnim Ashraful.   

Ashraful tied the knot with Orchi, a resident of Bhairab, on July 15, 2015 in an unornamented ceremony in the USA, while the additional formalities were held later that year in December.

Bangladesh lifts Ashraful ban from domestic cricket

Bangladesh Cricket Board August 13, 2016 partially lifted the ban on Ashraful, allowing him to play in selected domestic competitions, officials said.

Ashraful was initially banned for eight years in 2014 after he tearfully confessed on national television to helping fix matches in the scandal-hit BPL.

The Twenty20 tournament was eventually left suspended in the wake of the match-fixing controversy before being resumed in 2015 with six new franchises.

A local appeal panel in September 2014 cut Ashraful’s ban to five years including a two-year suspended sentence, meaning he can return to competitive cricket from August 2016.

The BCB and the ICC had lodged an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland against his reduced ban in October 2014, but later withdrew it.  

BCB chief executive officer Nizamuddin Chowdhury said they were now waiting for an ICC response to determine, which domestic competitions Ashraful will be allowed to play.

Ashraful, Test cricket’s youngest century-maker, made his debut at the national level at the age of 17.

He has played 61 Tests, 177 one-day internationals and 23 T20 international matches.

ICC anti-corruption investigators discovered the fixing scam after being asked by Bangladesh authorities to monitor the lucrative T20 tournament.