Tamim Has Reached The Point Of No Return

Tamim Iqbal is standing in front of cross road. During the last media session he was asked whether he will join politics or be keen to for the BCB president post.

It is not difficult to say that these kind of questions are usually faced by a cricketer who is coming at the end of his career and taking into consideration the latest trend in Bangladesh cricket it is not totally surprising either as cricketers are keen to join politics even before ending their cricket that began with Mashrafee bin Mortaza while Shakib al Hasan being the new kid on the political block. 

Whether Tamim will join the race or not remains to be seen in the coming days though he is not ruling out the option altogether but at the moment Tamim is not thinking anything in this regard rather focusing on making a comeback into competitive cricket after being out of it for more than three months. He is fighting with injury for the last two years while in 2022 he retired from T20 cricket last year all of a sudden he retired from cricket altogether in June though came back as per the wish of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Though he came out of retirement a day after announcing it in an emotional press conference but in reality the former ODI skipper is quite irregular in cricket as he did not feature in the last World Cup while he did not feature in the last two series of Bangladesh against New Zealand at home and away.

When Tamim will go down to play the opening game of BPL it will be his first competitive game since the ODI series against New Zealand at home before the World Cup. 

This BPL is special for Tamim in more than many ways as many feels it will be the beginning of his last phase as a cricketer. In his long career this is the first time he will not be included in the national contract after he asked the BCB cricket operation not to keep his name in the national contract list and if history is taken into account it suggest he is planning to quit international cricket and the now the only wait is for the official announcement. 

Tamim earlier said that he will sit with BCB during the BPL and clear the air regarding his plan as an international cricketer and on Thursday he looked confident about it.

“You will come to know about it,” Tamim said when his attention was drawn regarding his international career plan on Thursday after the practice of Fortune Barisal, a franchise he is representing in the forthcoming BPL.

“I hope you will come to know about it( his stand on international cricket) during the BPL,” he said adding that there is still some rustiness as he is returning to cricket after a while. 

“It is obvious that there will be some rustiness to be honest did not practice for last three months. I am batting for two to two and a half weeks and improving day by day,” he said adding that his major goal is to win the BPL championship but insisted that it easier said than done.

Championship is such a thing that you cannot do by making an announcement but all of us have the same goal ( to be champions) and we all know why we came here and we have to play 12 games in the league phase and later we have qualifiers and if we can start well from the beginning it is good for us,” he said.

Apart from his franchise Fortune Barisal these 12 matches are very important for Tamim as well. 

 The left-handed batsman is arguably one of the best opening batsman Bangladesh have ever produced and he would certainly try to end his run on a high note and if that is the case he couldn’t have asked for a better platform than BPL considering if he can come out as winner it will only prove that he still have something to offer in national jersey. 

Tamim would certainly like to live up to the expectation and would like to replicate the heroics that helped Comilla Victorians to clinch the BPL in 2019 as his blistering 61-ball 141 against Dhaka Dynamites was the only difference between the two teams.

Who knows Tamim might be in his sublime best leaving behind his injury and controversy along with all the pressure of international cricket and play the cricket that he knows best in BPL just by enjoying the game and nothing else.