Bangladesh Cricket Board president Nazmul Hasan has supported the decision of Tamim Iqbal to pull out from the upcoming T20 World Cup.
Bangladesh opener Tamim through a facebook video message announced that he is not going to take part in the forthcoming T20 World Cup in Oman and the United Arab Emirates.
Tamim backed his decision by informing that it will be unfair to the other openers who played T20 matches for Bangladesh during his long absence from the format.
Tamim last played T20I in March 2020 against Zimbabwe in Dhaka.
The participating teams in the T20 World Cup, to be held in October-November this year, have to submit a 15-member squad and the list of eight coaching staffs by September 10.
Nazmul while speaking to the media following a board meeting at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium Wednesday stated that Tamim was part of the Bangladesh squad that was to be announced soon.
“However, we have now removed his name. I am not surprised with the announcement. He had discussed the same with me before making the decision,” said Nazmul.
“I have always said Tamim is the best opener that I had during my time in BCB. He has not played T20 for a long time. I am not saying this in a negative sense. You all know how serious Tamim is with his job and he took this [about playing T20 World Cup] seriously too. He did not play T20 in New Zealand, played the ODI series in Zimbabwe but not the T20Is. He did not play the Australia series as well and now the New Zealand series. So there might be a question of him playing the T20 World Cup without playing any games recently.
“Then there is the fact that the team are playing well at the moment and majority do not want to change the winning combination. Tamim any day is an auto choice for me and that is why we had kept him in the team for the T20 World Cup. But he thought of the better option, and which is absolutely right. He thought it will not be right with the other openers and it is also challenging to play T20 World Cup directly coming from an injury. He spoke to me before taking the decision but it is totally his personal decision,” the BCB boss added.
Nazmul informed that Tamim has the option to play T20Is for Bangladesh following the world event.
“We have a lot of matches following the T20 World Cup and there is another T20 World Cup next year. I am confident Tamim will return to the T20 team again and play the T20 World Cup next year,” said Nazmul.