BCB president Nazmul Hassan has confirmed that Shakib Al Hasan has agreed to play in the Test series against South Africa next month. In a press briefing following Bangladesh's third ODI against Afghanistan in Chattogram, Nazmul said they had spoken following the match and settled the issue. "Shakib gave us a letter saying that he wants a six-month break from Tests," Nazmul said. "When we asked him, he said that he will miss Tests against South Africa and Sri Lanka because of the IPL. I replied that you have to play against Sri Lanka, to which he agreed. Now that he is not going to the IPL, I don't see any reason why he shouldn't play the Test series in South Africa. So forget about it. This is no longer in my mind. The IPL was preventing him from playing [the two Test series], but now he will play [both series].
The announcement comes barely hours after BCB cricket operation chairman Jalal Yunus told media that they are keen to sit down with the allrounder to chalk out a future plan. "Basically we will ask him for his plan for this year. There have been media reports that he doesn't want to play Tests, but we know that he wants to play Tests," said Jalal. He added that they will give freedom to Shakib to inform the board about his preferences rather than being forced to play any format as the BCB doesn't want to consider any player as their "employee". "It's not a matter of pick and choose. He might have some problems, so we will consider him if he tells us that he wants to play a certain number of matches in a format," Jalal said. "Nobody is bound to play every match. The BCB is not an organization where we consider players as mere employees. They are also stakeholders. They have the freedom to discuss how many matches they want to play. "Shakib has already taken leave from Test series on three previous occasions citing personal reasons
