Essex, Tamim downplay incident

A day after The Daily Star reported that Bangladesh opener Tamim Iqbal's wife, Ayesha Siddiqa, was a victim of a hate crime, ESPNCricinfo published a report alleging that both the left-hander and Essex Cricket Club played down the reasons for his 'abrupt exit'.

The report says that Tamim had reported an altercation to Essex Cricket on Monday, a day after his debut in the NatWest T20 Blast. He then asked that his contract be terminated so the family, including his child, could return to Bangladesh, a request Essex immediately agreed to.

The report also states that 'the county and player chose to play down the incident', with Essex chairman John Faragher and chief executive Derek Bowden overseeing a brief statement which requested that Tamim's privacy be respected.

It was also reported that Essex made no concrete efforts to discover the nature of the incident which forced Tamim to leave, and adds that no official complaint is thought to have been lodged with the Metropolitan Police.

Tamim's family had been uneasy about the environment in London even before his departure -- a newspaper finding shows a 23 per cent rise in hate crimes in the last 11 months since the UK's vote to leave the EU.

At Tamim's behest, he was kept in a luxury apartment in Stratford, some 35 miles away from Essex's Chelmsford headquarters.