"Not right that we were not on talking terms" - Shakib Al Hasan on rift with Tamim Iqbal
Veteran Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan has denied reports of a rift with opener Tamim Iqbal, claiming that BCB President Najmul Hasan Papon's statement created problems in their relationship. Shakib further claimed that he was always talking terms with Tamim.
During an interview with Cricbuzz in February 2023, Papon had pointed to an unhealthy dressing room environment, headlined by a rift between Shakib and Tamim. He claimed that he had spoken to the duo and felt it was difficult to sort out their differences. However, he received assurance that it wouldn't affect the team's results.
To clear the air, speaking in a documentary aired by Bongo, Shakib blamed the outside noise for unnecessarily highlighting the rift instead of the events on the field.
"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. For quite some time we were not talking a lot. [But] it is not right that we were not on talking terms," he said.
The 37-year-old opined that their respective marriages meant they spent less time together but felt their relations never got strained.
"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," the all-rounder added.
Ahead of the 2023 World Cup in India, Tamim's relations with BCB captured the limelight as one of the top officials allegedly asked him to bat down the order. Later, Shakib called the veteran opener 'childish' for not adjusting to the team's needs.
"I don't think any incident took place that would harm the team" - Shakib Al Hasan
The left-arm spinner added that no incident happened between him and Tamim that could have disrupted the team's harmony.
"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 concluded.
Tamim retired from T20I cricket in 2022 but still plays the other two formats. He had surprisingly announced his retirement from international cricket in July last year, only to make a U-turn 24 hours later.