Star all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan has claimed that Bangladesh Cricket Board president Nazmul Hasan’s public comments widened the rift between himself and Tamim Iqbal. In an interview with Cricbuzz, the BCB boss stated that the two senior cricketers of the national team were not on talking terms. That revelation about the two veterans turned into a major talking point in Bangladesh cricket over the last year.
While Tamim has insisted that his relationship with Shakib had no bearing on the team, Shakib did not share this point of view before opting to clear the air on the controversy now in a documentary aired by Bongo, a leading OTT platform in Bangladesh.
“This thing [the relationship between Tamim and Shakib] came to focus after Papon [Nazmul Hasan] Bhai spoke about it and it created a lot of problem on the relationship and created this situation,” Shakib was quoted as saying in the documentary. “I think some people had the intention to keep it [the rift] in focus and tried to make it as the main point [of discussion] rather than the cricketing side,” he said.
“For quite some time we were not talking a lot. [But] it is not right that we were not on talking terms. The thing is, there was a time when we used to be together all the time but that relationship was not there for quite some time. It is very natural… I got married and he got married, we were staying separately in different places and so there was very lesser time between us. We were staying in the same building in different floors [earlier] so certainly that closeness starts to diminish as people start having separate family life and over time [the relationship] changed due to our busy schedules.
“Later what happened is that in the field when we met we have spoken whenever we need to talk and I don’t think we need to have lot of conversation between us apart from that,” Shakib said.
Shakib added that he doesn’t feel that there is any need to have this distance bridged with Tamim. “There is nothing like making it good or bad [as far as the relationship with Tamim is concerned]. Till we played together and shared the dressing room together I don’t think any incident took place that would harm the team. We tried to contribute whether we were talking or not, there was no kind of problem inside the field or in the dressing room,” he said.
Shakib also said that he did not want to send any message to Tamim with his controversial interview ahead of last year’s World Cup where he insisted that Tamim had been irresponsible. Shakib said he tried to provide clarity to the people of the country regarding what actually happened ahead of the showpiece event in India in 2023 which Tamim missed out.
“I did not try to give any message through that interview as it was certainly spontaneous and I felt that before going to the World Cup I should clear everything so that people know what actually happened and why this kind of situation is created.”
The veteran also opened up about his two-year ban (one year suspended) for failing to report multiple approaches made to him by a bookie. Shakib revealed that he was shocked after being handed the ban, post which he opted to not take anything for granted. “When the investigation took place that happened before the World Cup in March or February I don’t remember at that point when I was talking with the anti-corruption unit member, I felt that there is no chance of any such thing (getting banned) and it will all be cleared because I have cooperated as much as possible,” he recalled.
“I don’t think anyone would cooperate in such a way and then suddenly when they informed me about the decision by calling me I was shocked of course but because I made a mistake I have to accept the punishment. Regret as far as the punishment is concerned I feel I could have informed them, there were lot of options but it was kind of a joke and it was a lesson for me that you should not take all the things in life as a joke. I don’t know how much it will effect or not (his legacy) it is for others to decide whether it will have any effect or not I learnt a lot from that period. Had this not happened I would have had a bit cleaner image.”