Finally, the saga of Tamim Iqbal’s international retirement is over. It lasted around 30 hours, happened in Chattogram and then Dhaka, caused a lot of farewell writings to go to waste, and resulted in nothing.
Tamim will continue playing for Bangladesh and will do as captain. However, how the events unfolded surely set a bad example for the country’s cricketing infrastructure.
Let’s put the whole saga into context first. It started on Tuesday when ahead of Bangladesh’s first One-Day International against Afghanistan, Tamim stated in the pre-series press conference that he would be playing the coming match despite not being ‘100% fit’.
Following that, Bangladesh Cricket Board President Nazmul Hassan reacted by saying to a Bangla daily that head coach Chandika Hathurusinghe had complained to him about this matter, and he himself was not happy with it.
The next day, Bangladesh lost to Afghanistan by 17 runs (DLS Method), and on the night of the match, Tamim let the media know that he would be holding a press conference the next day.
In that press briefing, an emotional Tamim announced that he was a retired player from that moment, leading to a shockwave within the Bangladesh cricket fraternity.
Later that day, BCB called an urgent board meeting to discuss the matter, and following that, Nazmul stated that they did not accept Tamim’s decision, especially because he did not submit an official letter of retirement.
That letter arrived on Friday morning, although things changed rapidly in the next hours as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina invited Tamim and his wife to her residence in Dhaka through former Bangladesh skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza.
Their meeting, which also included Nazmul, happened for around three hours, following which Tamim said that he withdrew his retirement as he could not go against the Prime Minister’s words.
And with that, Tamim returned, got a month and a half leave to get in better shape for the Asia Cup, and kept his captaincy.
While this might be the right thing to happen with only three months to go to the World Cup, in the long run, this might end up hurting the country’s cricketing culture altogether.
Tamim’s retirement could have been the perfect example for cricketers across the country to step down when the time is right. The highest run-scorer for Bangladesh has been in dire form in recent times, and it was visible from his recent medical issues that he is continually struggling with fitness problems.
No Bangladesh cricketer, to date, has been able to retire through a grand event. Mashrafe got a farewell when he left his role as captain, but he is yet to retire, and other Bangladesh legends had to leave through the backdoor, including Mahmudullah Riyad, who was axed rather than retiring on his own terms.
Tamim’s retirement would have been a statement piece of courage, an act of putting the team forward when he himself understood that his performances turned substandard. It would have served as the perfect example for stepping away when the time is right for future generations.
However, BCB’s unwillingness to accept Tamim’s decision might lead to creating a culture where cricketers will not step away by themselves but rather will try to play on for as long as they can.
‘You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain’ – Harvey Dent said in ‘The Dark Knight’. What will happen with Tamim is yet to be seen, but if this culture sustains, more villains will appear than heroes.
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