Bangladesh’s all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan opened up on his long-time rift with opener Tamim Iqbal saying that the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president, Nazmul Hassan Papon, overhyped the issue.
Tamim was dropped from Bangladesh’s squad for the ODI World Cup 2023 and it was reported that he and Shakib stopped talking to one another since then which made many wonder what had actually happened.
Talking in a local documentary, Shakib cleared the air regarding the controversy where he blamed Papon saying that no one knew anything about it before he made it public.
"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 problems on the relationship and created this situation. 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," Shakib was quoted as saying in a documentary.
"For quite some time, we were not talking a lot. [But] it's 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's very natural. Both of us got married, we were staying separately in different places and so, there was very less time between us," added Shakib.
He then stated that Tamim and he would talk to one another whenever they were on the field but not more than that as there was nothing to talk about.
"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 on 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 added further.
- Shakib Al Hasan
