Ashraful to put up man of the match award against Australia on auction

Mushfiqur Rahim and Shakib Al Hasan, two of the country's best cricketers had decided earlier to put up their famous bats on auction to help battle the coronavirus. Mushfiq is to put up on auction the bat with which he scored the country's first-ever double century in 2013 whereas Shakib decided to auction the bat with which he scored 606 runs in the 2019 Cricket World Cup. 

And now, veteran batsman Mohammad Ashraful has decided to auction some of his memorials including the man of the match award against Australia in 2005 to help battle the coronavirus. Ashraful himself confirmed this to The Business Standard (TBS). 

In the 2005 Natwest Trophy, Ashraful had hit a ton in the Tigers' only victory in ODIs against Australia, which saw him being awarded a bottle of champagne as the man of the match. Ashraful has not yet opened the bottle and has decided to put it up for auction.

Besides that, he is willing to auction the bat of that match and also the bat with which he hit the century which made him the youngest centurion in Test cricket in 2001 against Sri Lanka. 

Ashraful told TBS, "Besides the bottle of champagne, I will put my bat of that match and the bat of my first Test century on auction. I have not thought of where or how they will be auctioned but I am working on it. The whole money raised from this will be used to help the distressed people in this dire situation."

Ashraful had earlier said that he always thought of auctioning his memorials after his retirement but the right time is now. 

Ashraful played in 61 Tests and 177 ODIs for Bangladesh and was considered to be the country's first cricketing superstar.