Bangladesh opener Tamim Iqbal has been a part of many controversies in the year 2023. The left-handed batsman has now urged the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) not to include him in the central contract list. The information was shared by the B.C.B.Jalal Yunus President of Cricket Operations.
Addressing a press conference at Sher e-Bangla stadium in Mirpur, Jalal Yunus explained that Tamim Iqbal has urged the BCB not to include him in the central contract list and that he will soon meet the president after the national elections.
Tamim Iqbal leaves Bangladesh centrally contracted players
Jalal Yunus said (quoted by The Daily Star): “He has his own plan and has requested not to include it now in the centre-back’s new contract. He’s supposed to meet with the president of our board. [Nazmul Hassan Papon] after the national elections and only after them will his future plan be finalized.”
Tamim Iqbal announced his retirement from international cricket in July last year, however, he reversed his decision after meeting Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Haseena. Iqbal resigned from Bangladesh’s ODI captaincy and was left out of the ODI format.
Tamim Iqbal also withdrew from the 2023 Asia Cup due to a back injury. However, he was expected to return ahead of the home ODI series against New Zealand in September and then play the ODI World Cup 2023. However, this did not happen and Iqbal missed both events.
The dispute between Tamim Iqbal and Shakib Al Hasan
After Tamim Iqbal missed the 2023 ODI World Cup, there was an open dispute between Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan and Iqbal. At one end, Tamim missed the World Cup squad due to his injury concerns, Shakib was upset with Bangladesh’s first match and stated that he is not a “team man”.
Shakib Al Hasan had advised Tamim Iqbal to play in the middle order, which Iqbal did not like and rejected the proposal. Shakib then called Tamim’s behavior “childish” and also asked him to learn from Indian captain Rohit Sharma.
Shakib Al Hasan had said while speaking to a Dhaka-based channel: “I am sure someone authorized had told (Tamim) this. Surely whoever said it has thought about the team. It takes a lot of things to create a combination for a match. So if someone has told you this, was it wrong? Or can we not make such a proposal? I’m just going to tell someone that you can do whatever you want. “First the team or the individual?”
“Someone like Rohit Sharma built his career from number 7 to the first match, he scored more than 10,000 runs. If he sometimes bats at number 3 or 4, would that be a big problem? He is totally childish. It’s my bat, I’ll play. Nobody else can play. A player must bat at any position on the team. Team first. It doesn’t matter if you’ve made 100 or 200 and the team loses. What can you do with personal achievements? Do you want to make a name for yourself?”
Tamim Iqbal has played a total of 391 matches in his international career, in which he has scored 15249 runs with an average and strike rate of 35.21 and 72.62 respectively.