Rokibul, who walked out on the team hotel in Chittagong Wednesday afternoon having announced his decision in front of the Bangladesh team, said that he had taken enough time to come to this conclusion.

He was dropped from the team for the only Test in New Zealand earlier this year after failing in the first one-dayer. Since then, he says, he felt largely deprived.

“I was taken to New Zealand but was not picked for the Test match. Then I was not picked in the one-day side [that played England at home] and I am not in the World Twenty20 probables,” said Rokibul outside his Mirpur residence yesterday evening. He delayed his return by a few hours after learning of the media’s presence.

The 22-year-old right-handed batsman scored an unbeaten 107 and a half-century in the practice match against England only last week that hastened his return to the Test fold. But he claimed that this was a part of his plan that can only be called a sort of revenge on the cricket board.

“I felt that I wasn’t getting enough attention from the cricket board and so I decided to make voluntary retirement once I was back in the team on my merit,” said Rokibul in his initial monologue.

“I couldn’t secure my position and was always on the fringe of the squad.

“It was my wish to retire at this time,” he said before refusing to comment on whether it was emotions that played a major part in his early retirement. He also refused to be drawn into any war of words with captain Shakib Al Hasan who termed it as ‘emotional and silly’.

He also informed that he will not take part in domestic cricket for now and still hasn’t considered his future before rushing up the stairs.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh Cricket Board released their official version regarding the Rokibul episode yesterday.

“Batsman Rokibul Hasan on Wednesday notified the Bangladesh Cricket Board that he was retiring from cricket with immediate effect. The abrupt nature of this announcement has come as a shock to everyone concerned as this was totally unexpected,” read the statement.

“The Board understands that this was a unilateral decision on part of the player but also feels that it was rather pre-mature. We certainly do not wish to see a young talented cricketer like Rokibul leaving the game so early and hope that he will reconsider his position.

“It has also come to our notice that certain quarters have related the situation with Rokibul to the selection process of the BCB. We take this opportunity to reiterate once again that selection of Test, ODI and T20 Teams is based purely on performance and merit and is done at the discretion of the national selection committee which has its own criteria for picking players. Therefore, there is no scope for emotion in this regard.

“Rokibul Hasan is an important member of the Bangladesh National Team and it is our sincere expectation that he will return to mainstream cricket at the earliest,” concluded the statement.

Till the filing of this report at midnight, it was known that Rokibul was in Dhaka. The Daily Star made several attempts to contact him but it was fruitless as the batsman’s phone was switched off.

Bangladesh Cricket Board director Jalal Yunus confirmed that Rokibul submitted his resignation letter to team operations manager Shafiqul Haque Heera in Chittagong, who faxed it to the board office in Mirpur. Then he proceeded to board a flight to Dhaka from Chittagong.

The drama unfolded yesterday morning when the 22-year-old Rokibul refused to bat in the nets after travelling to the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium with the team. Then while returning to the hotel he stunned the Tigers in the team bus where he suddenly announced that he would retire from all forms of cricket and would ‘never play again’.

According to team sources, it shocked the entire squad who tried to talk reason into him. But Rokibul maintained his stance and also refused to elaborate.

The team sources confirmed a similar pattern of behaviour. Rokibul implied that he was willing to ‘teach them a lesson’ and it was a ‘revenge of sorts’ after he was unceremoniously axed from the national team for the England ODIs. The team management including the selectors were culprits in his eyes.

At the time, the board did not accept a team with Rokibul in it when the selectors named him in the 14-man squad for the ODIs. That had him cut out of the Tigers side and he was forced to play a practice game against England. He slammed an unbeaten 107 and a fifty to force his way back into the Test series and according to some close to him, he was positive in his talk.

As the drama unfolded in front of his teammates’ eyes, he informed chief selector Rafiqul Alam of his retirement. Rafiqul asked him the reasons of his decision but Rokibul said it was ‘personal’.

After informing the Tigers, Rokibul called up his Jamalpur home where he talked to his elder brother Shafiqul Islam to express his desire.

“He [Rokibul] called me and said that he has quit the national team and was going to Dhaka,” said Shafiqul when contacted over phone.

“He told us that he had informed the captain and the coach of his decision, but I requested him not to take such a reckless decision.

“We know that he is someone who always makes the right call but this [retirement] has shocked us all at home,” said Shafiqul, a service-holder in Jamalpur.

According to Shafiqul, his brother had recently expressed dissatisfaction with the way he was treated by the team management over the last two months. “After returning from New Zealand, he told me that he was just taken therebut made to sit out the Test matches,” said Shafiqul.

“He told me that he was in form but wasn’t scoring enough runs. ‘Maybe that was my only fault’ he said,” added Shafiqul.

There was another version in a leading website where it was claimed that a BCB insider said Rokibul had been ‘compromised’ as the board also rejected his name from the Test squad.

“The selectors were told by the board to drop Raqibul and Ashraful from the Test squad,” the BCB insider told the website. “The selectors refused to drop Raqibul after he scored a century and a fifty in the warm-up game at Chittagong and Raqibul has returned to Dhaka feeling that his position in the team is compromised.”

But Jalal Yunus, also the media committee chairman of the board, strongly denied any such claims. “We completely denounce this report. It was written with the reporter’s own assumptions about the incident,” he said.

“He [Rokibul] was very much in the side and there were no questions about it [his position in the Test team]. The notion that this team was also rejected by the board members is completely false and I would like the contributor to mention the name of the ‘BCB insider’,” added Yunus.