Staff Correspondent

The Shakib Al Hasan issue seems to have come to an end, at least for the time being, as the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) yesterday granted him a break from cricket till April 30.

Despite the star cricketer initially agreeing to tour South Africa, ahead of departure for Dubai on Sunday Shakib said that he was not in a mental state to play cricket and asked for a rest during the upcoming South Africa tour.

Following a meeting with BCB president Nazmul Hassan, BCB CEO and other top officials at Hassan's Beximco office in Dhanmondi, the chairman of the BCB's cricket operations committee, Jalal Yunus, said that it won't be right to force Shakib since he is not enjoying the game at the moment.

"As you know before leaving for Dubai he said that he is mentally and physically fatigued and stressed. He called me and said that he is not enjoying any form of cricket. So I thought that since he has just finished the Afghanistan series and it can happen, I told him to take two days' time to think. After two days, I called him to know his plan and Shakib said 'I am still physically and mentally unfit,' and for that reason, he is not willing to tour South Africa," Jalal told the media yesterday.

"Then we had a meeting with the BCB president, CEO and some board directors were also present there. Taking Shakib's interest into consideration and considering that he is terming himself physically and mentally unfit, we have decided to give him the rest. So we granted him a complete break from all forms of cricket till April 30," Jalal added.

The BCB director also said that they would sit with Shakib over his future plan upon his return on Thursday from Dubai, where the cricketer is busy fulfilling his commercial commitments.

When asked whether the BCB was embarrassed over the Shakib saga, Jalal said, "He could have asked us but he didn't do that. I think you should ask him that question. He could have discussed it with us as he had said the same thing to the BCB president. Since Shakib is pressing the mental issue, we decided to give him the rest. This never sets a good example and we admit this since we have another 14 cricketers in the team. Everyone follows the seniors, so we also hope the seniors bring that positive vibe."

The Bangladesh team is scheduled to leave for South Africa on March 11 to take part in a three-match ODI and a two-match Test series.