Veteran Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan has denied all the reports of a rift with veteran opener Tamim Iqbal, saying that BCB President Najmul Hasan Papon’s statement made problems in their relationship as well. However, Shakib further added that he was always talking terms with Tamim as well. However, During an interview with Cricbuzz in February 2023, Papon had shared to an unhealthy dressing room environment, including a rift between Shakib and Tamim.

“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 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 further added.

However, ahead of the 2023 World Cup in India, Tamim’s relations with BCB made headlines as one of the top officials allegedly asked him to bat down the order as well. Later, Shakib Al Hasan referred to him as ‘childish’ for not adjusting to the team’s needs. The veteran left-arm spinner also added that no incident happened between him and Tamim that could hamper 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,” Shakib Al Hasan concluded.