Tamim Iqbal to 'wait till January' before deciding on his international future

Tamim Iqbal will 'wait till January' to make a decision about his future in international cricket.

"After the World Cup, I felt that there should be a decision about my international future," Tamim said during a press conference on Monday. "Throughout my career, I have always kept myself away from indecision. I have always been very open and clear about whatever decision I have taken in my life. I was not in the country for quite some time, so this meeting [with BCB president Nazmul Hassan] was due.

"We held the meeting today because we had to postpone it yesterday too. Today is actually not a great day to do all this. The Test match [against New Zealand] starts tomorrow. Since we had to do the meeting today, a statement afterwards was always forthcoming, so I apologise that I am doing this the day before the game. It is important for me and the Bangladesh team that there's no impact of this in the game."

Tamim had retired from international cricket last July, only to reverse his decision after meeting Bangladesh's prime minister Sheikh Hasina the following day. A month later, he also resigned from ODI captaincy. Tamim then played two out of three ODIs against New Zealand in September, even as his successor Shakib Al Hasan had later criticised him for leaving the captaincy at the time. Tamim is yet to respond to Shakib.

Tamim said that he was holding back the announcement about his future at Nazmul's request, adding that he will be returning to competitive cricket during next year's Bangladesh Premier League in January.

"I don't want to keep things hanging for a few more months. I don't want to stretch it unnecessarily," he said. "After discussing a lot of things with the president and the board, I want to respect their decision and wait till January. I could have told you my plan today, but let me play in the BPL, and then we will have another discussion for sure."

Nazmul, meanwhile, said major discussions regarding the issue with Tamim will be done only after national elections - where Nazmul has got the ticket from his home district alongside Shakib Al Hasan and Mashrafe Mortaza - in January.

"There wasn't enough time [to discuss matters with Tamim]," Nazmul said. "He said some stuff. But he came at a time when I didn't have enough time for him. I have the elections in a month. I spend most of my time in my constituency. I told him I will listen and speak to a few more people after the elections. I want to know where the problem is. I want to go into its depth."