“Shakib had given letter saying he won’t be available to play Tests for six months. Scenario has changed since he won’t be playing IPL,” says BCB official
“He won’t just talk about the South Africa series [the Test-leg of which starts on March 30]. Basically we will ask him for his plan for this year. There have been media reports that he doesn’t want to play Tests, but we know that he wants to play Tests.”
Yunus said that Shakib will be given the latitude to tell them about his preferences rather than being forced to play in any format. The BCB started this practice last year, when it asked centrally contracted players about their format-specific plans.
“It is not a matter of pick and choose. He might have some problems, so we will consider him if he tells us that he wants to play a certain number of matches in a format,” Yunus said. “Nobody is bound to play every match. The BCB is not an organisation where we consider players as mere employees. They are also stakeholders. They have the freedom to discuss how many matches they want to play.”
Since the 2017-18 South Africa series, Shakib has played only 30% of Bangladesh’s Tests, the reasons for his absences including injury, his one-year suspension for not reporting a corrupt approach, and personal reasons.
Mohammad Isam is ESPNcricinfo’s Bangladesh correspondent. @isam84
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