In a tell-all video, Tamim Iqbal has refuted the rumours that he had agreed to play only five matches at the 2023 World Cup.
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Bangladesh left the former captain out of their squad for the tournament, which was announced yesterday (September 26). Ahead of the announcements, rumours spread which suggested Tamim would only be able to play five matches in the tournament.
Today, the day after the announcement, Tamim – among other things – quashed the rumours in a candid video from his official Facebook page.
“Whatever the media has written over the past few days is completely different from the facts,” he began, speaking directly into the camera. “I want to tell you the truth, because Bangladesh cricket fans deserve to know the truth.”
“Two months ago, I retired and, at the request of the Prime Minister, retracted my decision. The trainers and physios will tell you how hard I have worked on my fitness since then. There was not a single session, single exercise they asked me to do and I did not.”
Shakib Al Hasan succeeded Tamim as captain. Tamim missed the Asia Cup, but the selectors included him for the three-match home ODI series against New Zealand.
“As the games approached, I was not in a very happy mental space. You will probably understand if you think what I have been through over the past four-five months,” he admitted.
The first ODI was washed out after New Zealand made 136-5 in 33.4 overs. Tamim fielded for the entirety of the game.
New Zealand won the second match by 86 runs. Coming out in pursuit of 255, Tamim made a 58-ball 44 at the top, one of only two scores in excess of 25 by a Bangladeshi in the match.
“I was very happy the way I batted in the second ODI,” he said. “I only scored 44 runs, but was very happy the way I batted. I was very confident, I was looking good for something big, but unfortunately that didn’t happen.
“After that game, I was very happy mentally. I could shrug off what had happened in the last four to five months, and was looking forward to play again, to the World Cup.”
However, there was a problem, as he admitted: “When you return from an injury, there will naturally be some discomfort, some pain. I felt some pain after both these matches. But just as I reported this to the physiotherapist, the three selectors entered the dressing-room.
“Let me clarify that at no point did I tell anyone that I shall not play more than five matches. Even Nannu-bhai (BCB selector Minhajul Abedin Nannu) clarified this yesterday. I have no clue who fed this to the media.
“What I actually told the selectors was, ‘See, the pain will be there, this is how my body is going to be. Please keep this in mind when you pick the squad.
“I could have played all nine matches at the World Cup, because apart from the first two games, there is a gap of three to four days between any two matches. At the same time, I could have picked up an injury, and be replaced. That can happen to anyone.”
Tamim said that returned to the hotel after the conversation. The BCB medical team assessed his pain level that day as well as on the next day. While in some pain, Tamim clarified that what he experienced was not an injury.
In the video, he then quoted from the physio’s report, agreeing to be challenged on any public forum on the same: “He [Tamim] felt pain after the first two matches, and is available for selection from the ODI on September 26 [the third ODI of the New Zealand series]. However, if he skipped the ODI and the first warm-up match [against Sri Lanka on September 29] and plays the second [against England on October 2], he will be in a much better position. That way, he will have a 10-week rehab.”
A day or two after that, Tamim said he received a call from a “top-level board official”, who asked him to sit out of Bangladesh’s first match at the World Cup, against Afghanistan at Dharamsala on October 7.
“That match is 12-13 days away. I may improve by then, why won’t I play in that case?” asked Tamim in his video.
The official then allegedly responded that they had a discussion around making Tamim bat down the order if he indeed played against Afghanistan.
“Imagine my mindset,” Tamim continued on the video. “I was happy after a decent outing with the bat. I have batted at a specific position for 17 years. I have never batted at Nos.3 or 4: had I done that, I could still have adjusted – but I had no experience.”
Tamim has opened batting in each of his 240 innings in ODIs. In 452 international innings across formats he has batted down the order only once – in the Potchefstroom Test match of 2017/18 – and that was because he had not spent enough time on the field towards the end of South Africa’s innings.
The alleged suggestion did not go down well with Tamim: “I lost my calm. I felt that they were deliberately creating obstacles for me. I said, ‘if that is what you want, don’t send me to the World Cup, I don’t to be part of this filth where you would make me endure something new every day.”
He did not reveal the rest of the conversation.
“The five-match rumour started out of nowhere, probably to suppress the actual truth,” he continued. “If you really want me, then you should make me mentally free and happy, because I was coming out of a very bad three to four months.
“Had the same thing been told me in a different way, I might have agreed. But to call me up suddenly and asking me to opt out or bat down the order, well… I am not sure how fair that is.
“Had there been one or two incidents, I could have dismissed them as misunderstandings. But if these things happen with the same person seven or eight times across three-four months, I have to consider them intentional. This is what I felt.
“I wish the Bangladesh team all the best, I hope they bring success home. Just a request to everyone: remember me.”
