Former Bangladesh captain Akram Khan, currently chairman of the cricket operation committee of the Bangladesh Cricket Board, has said BCB will reconsider its decision to allow star all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan to play the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021.
It comes right after Shakib criticized Akram for “misleading people” by saying that Shakib doesn’t want to play Test cricket.
“Shakib has given a long interview recently, where he claimed we didn’t read his letter. I need to see the interview first. I heard that he said he wants to play Test cricket. If he wants to play Tests, we may reconsider his NOC to play IPL,” Akram told reporters on Sunday evening.
In his interview with a cricket website, Shakib claimed he never told BCB that he is not willing to play Test cricket, and also that Akram Khan didn’t go through his letter properly before saying that Shakib is reluctant to play Tests.
When Akram was asked if it is true that he didn’t read Shakib’s letter thoroughly, he said: “What Shakib said in the letter is that he wants to play IPL skipping Sri Lanka series. So what we are going to play in Sri Lanka is known to everyone (Tests). It was there (in the letter). Since he now said that he wants to play Tests, we will reconsider his NOC.”
Akram’s answer suggests that the implication of Shakib’s letter would be that he doesn’t want to play Test cricket, even if Shakib didn’t say so in so many words.
In a recent Facebook Live session with Cricfrenzy, Shakib claimed that Akram has been saying that Shakib doesn’t want to play Test cricket, but he never said that anywhere in his letter submitted to BCB asking for leave to play IPL.
“I didn’t mention anywhere in my letter that I’m reluctant to play Tests. I rather mentioned that I want to play IPL so that I can prepare myself better for the World Cup. But Akram bhai repeatedly said that I took this decision to avoid Test cricket,” Shakib said, claiming that the board misled the people.
In the interview, Shakib also said that he finds it hard to see what the people at the BCB are doing except Nazmul Hasan and Khaled Mahmud. Akram responded to this as well.
“We never talked against the board,” Akram added. “We used to get only 20,000 to 30,000 taka but we didn’t criticize the board. We will discuss Shakib’s matter in the next board meeting."
