Shakib Al Hasan has opened up on the reported rift between himself and Bangladesh teammate Tamim Iqbal in a new documentary, blaming outside voices for highlighting the conflict.
Last year's ugly public showdown
Reports of a rift between the two players were heightened last year when a senior BCB official told Cricbuzz that the pair were not on speaking terms. The war of words took a turn when Iqbal responded to Shakib calling him 'childish' in an interview, by releasing a video on Facebook in which criticised the Bangladesh team selectors for his ommission from the 2023 Cricket World Cup.
Shakib claims outside forces escalated the rift
In the latest part of the drama, Shakib has blamed exterior noise for the escalation of the feud, and criticised those pushing it for taking the attention away from the cricket. He also calimed that reports that he and Iqbal are not on speaking terms were incorrect.
"For quite some time we were not talking a lot," said Shakib of his relationship with Iqbal. "[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 [in between]. It is very natural.
"I got married and he got married, we were staying seperately in different places and so there was very lesser time between us. We were staying in the same building in different floors [before] so certainly that closeness starts to diminish as people start having seperate family life, and over time [the relationship] changed due to our busy schedules.
"This thing [the relationship between the two] came into focus after [BCB official] spoke about it and created a lot of problems in 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."
Iqbal has not played for Bangladesh since September 2023, before the 50-over World Cup. Shakib is currently playing for the side in the T20 World Cup in the Caribbean and USA.
Shakib went on to be quoted as saying in the documentary that there is no need to "make good or bad" the situation between himself and Iqbal given they have not shared the Bangladesh dressing room for several months.
"There is nothing like making it good or bad," he said. "Till we play together and share 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."
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