Bangladesh’s one-day international captain Tamim Iqbal has announced his retirement from all forms of international cricket with immediate effect.

“Yesterday against Afghanistan was my last international game, I am retiring from international cricket effective right now,” Tamim told reporters.

He started crying as he made the announcement, which was shown live on national TV during the press conference.

“There was no sudden reason behind this, I was thinking about it for quite some time,” he added. “I was talking about it with my family members for few days. I thought this was right time for me to decide.”

Tamim’s decision came just two days after he was heavily criticised for playing against Afghanistan in the first one-day international (ODI) of a three-match series, even though he said he wasn’t 100 percent fit.

The president of the Bangladesh Cricket Board, Nazmul Hassan, was one of the first people to criticise the player. He questioned the player’s professionalism.

Tamim scored 13 runs off of 21 balls, but Bangladesh lost by 17 runs to a team that they should have been able to beat.

The 34-year-old batsman played in 241 ODIs for Bangladesh and scored 8,313 runs. He also hit 14 centuries, which are the most by any Bangladeshi batsman.

In 70 Tests, he played 134 innings and made 10 hundreds, for a total of 5,134 runs and 10 hundreds.

In 2022, he gave up Twenty20 internationals.

Photo by Deryck Foster/BackpagePix