Sports Desk : dhakamirror.com
Former Bangladesh captain Mahmudullah turned down a Bangladesh Cricket Board proposal to retire gracefully from the field, an official said on Thursday.
BCB cricket operations chairman Jalal Yunus told New Age that they had offered Mahmudullah to retire from the field with a match in the forthcoming tri-nation series in New Zealand, but he did not accept the offer and instead said that he would continue to prepare himself to make his comeback in the national set-up in the shortest format of the game.
Bangladesh is scheduled to play a tri-nation series starting in New Zealand from October 7-12 involving Pakistan.
‘We suggested to him [Mahmudullah] to announce his retirement from the T20Is officially during the upcoming tri-nation series in New Zealand, but he said he would continue,’ said Jalal.
Mahmudullah, who led the side in the last edition of the ICC T20 World Cup, was omitted from the Tigers’ 15-man squad on Wednesday for next month’s T20 World Cup in Australia.
Although his exclusion didn’t come as a big surprise, as the 36-year-old had failed to satisfy the selectors with his continuous poor batting display in this format.
In his last eight games, Mahmudullah could just make 151 runs.
Taking his constant off-form into consideration, a murmur regarding his permanent exclusion from the T20I took place in the country’s cricket fraternity before the BCB declared the squad.
Even the BCB president, Nazmul Hasan, was asked on Tuesday regarding the official send-off of Mahmudullah due to his poor form.
However, considering the Bangladesh national team members’ custom of announcing their retirement just through social media posts, the BCB boss also stressed the importance of making it official.
‘I think we should show the last respect to those who would announce their retirement on the field. If he [Mahmudullah] wants to retire and fails to earn a place in the squad, we must give him a chance [to retire on the field] as his contribution to the team is undeniable. The retirement of Mushfiq already made us feel bad’, said Nazmul.
Bangladesh one-day skipper Tamim Iqbal announced his retirement from the T20Is through a Facebook post in July following their third and final one-day international against the West Indies. He was followed by his fellow colleague, Mushfiqur Rahim, earlier this month.