Tamim Iqbal excluded as BCB announces central contract list; Najmul Shanto bags all-format deal

The Bangladesh Cricket Board announced the central contract list for the men's senior team for 2024 on Monday, February 12. The legendary batter and former captain Tamim Iqbal has been excluded from the list in a major development in Bangladesh Cricket.

Tamim hasn't played international cricket since his last ODI appearance in September 2023 and is now unlikely to make the national team after another blow from the board. Tamim's controversial relationship with the BCB has led to the player's sharp fall in international cricket in recent months.

The 34-year-old top-order batter remains the country's all-time leading runscorer with 15,249 international runs and also holds the record for most centuries across formats, 25. Tamim is currently representing Fortune Barishal in the Bangladesh Premier League 2024 and is expected to announce his plans for the future after the tournament.

Meanwhile, Najmul Shanto, Bangladesh's new all-format captain, received his first all-format contract along with the young pace bowler Shoriful Islam. The duo joined by Shakib Al Hasan, Litton Das and Mehidy Hassan Miraz in the five-member list of all-three-format contract list.

However, the 28-year-old Taskin Ahmed is also excluded from the all-format contract after he requested the board to not consider him for the Test cricket selection. Taskin and the star pace bowler Mustafizur Rahman are part of both the ODI and T20I contract lists.

The former captain Mahmudullah and youngster Tanzim Hasan are part of only the ODI contract list while Nasum Ahmed, Mahedi Hasan and the struggling wicketkeeper batter Nurul Hasan make only the T20I list.