Bangladesh Cricket Board wants Tamim Iqbal to continue his T20I career until at least this year’s T20 World Cup in Australia.
Left-handed opener Tamim, who played 78 T20Is and scored 1758 runs, has not played a T20I since 2020 and even opted out of the T20 World Cup 2021 in Oman and the United Arab Emirates.
BCB boss Nazmul Hasan confirmed to the media a few days ago that Tamim told him that he does not want to play T20Is anymore.
But it is understood that BCB wants Tamim to play till the T20 World Cup scheduled for later this year.
Tamim, who is playing for Minister Group Dhaka in the Bangabandhu Bangladesh Premier League Twenty20 2022, met the president, cricket operations committee chairman and other influential directors over the issue Tuesday.
“Even (Monday) there was a long meeting with Tamim. A while ago the honorable president and I had a meeting with Tamim, regarding his plans. You will all get to know the plan from Tamim,” informed cricket operations chairman Jalal Younus to the media.
“Of course we want Tamim to continue. I said this before. Tamim, Shakib (al Hasan), Mushfiqur (Rahim), (Mahmudullah) Riyad, still they are important players for us. We want them to continue. We said exactly this to Tamim.
“Tamim has plans for himself, he wants to continue forward that way. Hence we can't say anything (T20 retirement) about this at the moment.”
BCB is also searching for a new pace bowling coach for the Tigers after Ottis Gibson did not extend his contract.
“We are in the search for a bowling coach. We have three or four names in the shortlist. It has not been finalized. We hope to come to a decision before the Afghanistan series,” Jalal said.
“We gave all the coaches at least two years. Two years is a long time. Gibson was also on a two-year contract. Whoever we appoint, we will offer him a two-year contract. Majority of the coaches these days work in the IPL or other leagues. We are engaged in discussions, whether to ascertain the number of days he will work in a year or full time. If he is willing to work full time, of course we will tie him to a full time deal,” he concluded.
