Earlier, Mortaza had said that 2019 will be his last appearance in a World Cup © Getty

A number of retirements from international cricket are on the cards by the end of 2019 World Cup. There have been players who have served their respective teams over the last two decades and one of them is Mashrafe Mortaza but the Bangladesh captain is not thinking of retiring immediately after the World Cup.

Earlier, Mortaza had said that it will be his last appearance in a World Cup and since then there has been a lot of speculation going around on whether he wants to say good bye to his 18-year old international career following the tournament.

If Bangladesh Cricket Board insists, he might think otherwise but for Mortaza it's definitely not over yet.

"I don't want to quit (international cricket) immediately because I want to play more," said Mortaza in a recent interview. "It is a different matter if BCB thinks otherwise but the board has not instructed me anything as such (regarding my retirement)," added the skipper.

"I have already announced that it will be my last World Cup so I wanted them [my family members] to come and watch me playing for the last time in the showcase event," he said pointing towards the arrival of his wife son and daughter along with his brother in England.

"Thinking about any such thing (retirement) will certainly distract me so I don't want to think about it at the moment as we are still very much in the tournament,'' said Mortaza.

The fact that he doesn't want his team members to get distracted and pressurize them by announcing his retirement speaks much about his leadership skills. "The focus of the whole team will be distracted because whatever they do they will say, that they want to do it for me (as I am retiring). I want them to play the tournament with a free mind and enjoy the tournament,'' Mortaza added. "People become emotional during such times and I don't want any such thing to happen."

The present captain's performance in the World Cup has come under scrutiny due to the fact that he is not delivering like the way he used to do before. Mortaza's sponsorship deals might play a big role behind his decision of not retiring immediately after the World Cup as most of his deals run up to 2020.

Walton Group, who recently inked a deal with Mortaza as their brand ambassador, did not agree with this particular fact but indicated international cricketers always have a bigger brand value. "It's true that a current player has a brand value but it depends on other things like his performance and off-field behaviour because it can diminish the brand value to a large extent if someone fails to live up to the standards," Uday Hakim (Executive Director, Walton Group) told Cricbuzz.

"We are not concerned whether he retires or doesn't when it comes to our contract that runs till 2020 because we did not sign the agreement just because he is a playing member of the team," said the Executive Director. "We believe his brand value will not diminish with his retirement," he added.

Meanwhile, BCB media committee chairman Jalal Yunus insisted that these retirement talks will hamper the team's performance during the tournament. "I think we should not talk about this retirement at this point of time because it will only make them lose their focus at the middle of the tournament," said Jalal. "We (BCB) haven't discussed anything about his retirement. At the moment we are totally focusing on the tournament and I request we refrain from highlighting anything that can disrupt our progress,'' Jalal concluded.