Shakib Al Hasan had recently made some straightforward comments regarding Bangladesh's failure in the ICC World Cup and other problems during press briefings and interviews with various news outlets. In those sessions, he has not hesitated to speak frankly about a few issues like Mashrafe Bin Mortaza's poor performance in the World Cup, a lack of infrastructure in the country's cricket and many other issues. Today, speaking to The Daily Star during an exclusive interview at his residence, the ace all-rounder expressed his frustration at the country's sports journalists.

The Bangladesh Test and T20I all-rounder believed that journalists were doing very little to unearth what is actually happing in the country's cricket. 

"The main problem with journalists is that you guys know what the matter is, but you won't ever say it. You will hear from someone [a player] and then try to say it through them," said Shakib at one point when some questions were raised regarding some major problems surrounding Bangladesh cricket.

When his attention was drawn to the fact that people pay more attention to the words of Shakib or any other national star rather than journalists, the 32-year-old disagreed.

"People of Bangladesh pay heed to that [what journalists write]. I have seen that happening when you say something. And it's not like you don't know about the subject matter. All you journalists know what is actually happening behind the scenes and about who has what problems and in what areas. At least when it comes to the country's cricket, even if you don't know the whole truth, you guys know 70 or 80 per cent. But you never write about them and won't talk about them. What you will do instead is get a player or someone else and say 'bhai, you say it and then I will write'," he said.

"Why?" Shakib enquired. "It's not that you don't write at all but it's very little and doesn't count."

During the hour-long conversation, the ace all-rounder gave his insights into various problems facing Bangladesh cricket such as the chaos surrounding the seventh edition of the BPL and the lack of long-term planning.

Our readers can read the interview in its entirety in tomorrow's (October 21) edition of The Daily Star.