The head of the cricket board had earlier faced accusations of triggering the quiting statement from the player by questioning his ethos and professionalism.
Nazmul Hasan, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president, has asked veteran opener Tamim Iqbal to reconsider his shocking decision to retire from international cricket on Thursday (July 6). Hasan deemed the move “emotional and hasty”, stating that the experienced left-hander ought to have kept in mind the team’s needs and his duties as the ODI skipper three months prior to the 2023 World Cup.
In a suddenly called press conference, Tamim broke down while announcing the end of his international playing career following the first One-Dayer versus Afghanistan, calling it quits at the top level when he was expected to lead Bangladesh at the looming quadrennial event in India in October-November.
Tamim refused to divulge into the “different reasons” that inspired his decision but the fact that it arrived only two days after Hasan publicly criticised him and questioned his ethos for the game and the team meant that the retirement was bound to be treated as a result of the botched-up relationship between the player and the board.
Hasan, however, is willing to mend ways now and revealed the retirement hasn’t been “formally” accepted by the board yet, which leaves room for a U-turn from the player whose great body of work still makes him a cricketer of influence and impact value to Bangladesh’s World Cup cause and, if nothing, is deserving of a better send-off.
In a separate press conference organised after leading a board of directors meeting in discussion of the Tamim Iqbal issue, Hasan spoke indirectly with the cricketer via the media and requested him to comeback for Bangladesh’s sake.
“The reason why we sat today is that suddenly we have seen that Tamim announced in the media that he retired. It was totally unexpected for us because we have had regular communication… and because he was the ODI skipper, even three days back we spoke with him about the squad and even today I have spoken with him,” Hasan told the reporters.
“I did not have any clue that this kind of decision can come. I have spoken with him personally about his future and he said that he will play till the next Champions Trophy and later he spoke about World Cup captaincy with Jalal bhai (BCB cricket operation chairman).”
“And I told him that he is the captain. As the World Cup is close there were no talks about change of captaincy and from a player like him when such things (announcement of sudden retirement) come it is very unfortunate.”
“I am trying to communicate with him since the morning and later tried with Nafees Iqbal (Tamim’s brother and manager of Bangladesh team) but still could not get hold of him.”
“At that point, I sent a message to Nafees stating that I want him to lead the side in this series and later we can sit and discuss what can be done. A legendary cricketer like him should not take hasty and emotional decision and he is very important for the team,” Hasan said.
Notably, the same BCB chief had questioned Tamim’s “professional” and insisted he “lost his temper” over the player’s statement, wherein he mentioned he is perhaps featuring in the opening game of the Afghanistan series without re-attaining perfect fitness standards since the break. The idea from the player had perhaps been to build-on his match fitness over the course of the series.
