The good, the bad and the ugly of Tamim’s captaincy

1244 days. That’s how long Tamim Iqbal was the One-Day International (ODI) captain of the Bangladesh cricket team.

Tamim had big shoes to fill when he was named as the successor of Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, the most successful captain in the country’s cricket, on 8 March 2020.

In the 1244 days that followed, Tamim went through his fair shares of ups and downs as captain. Tamim was the captain during the tumultuous Covid-19 period where the entire cricketing world had come to a halt. He led Bangladesh to historic victories and in embarrassing defeats. He also couldn’t stop his dirty laundry from getting exposed for all to see.

Prothom Alo now takes a look at the good, the bad and the ugly of Tamim Iqbal the captain.

After becoming captain in March of 2020, Tamim had to wait till January 2021 to lead the team on the field.

This lengthy waiting period was caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Bangladesh had to take a longer sabbatical from international cricket then most top cricketing nations during the pandemic, leaving Tamim no choice but to wait before finally beginning his tenure as captain on the field. But that didn’t stop him from acting as a leader off the field.

When the entire country was in a lockdown, although it was labelled as a ‘general holiday’ by the government, Tamim started hosting a talk show on Youtube and Facebook, bringing his teammates like Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, Mahmudullah, Mushfiqur Rahim, former cricketers Akram Khan, Khaled Mahmud Sujon and international stars like Rohit Sharman, Faf du Plessis and Virat Kohli as guests.

The news of his philanthropy also came to light during this period, as he reportedly helped many local athletes and sportsperson from different disciplines who were going through financial hardships during the pandemic.

Tamim’s captaincy tenure started with a comprehensive 3-0 clean sweep over the West Indies at home.

Another high point of his captaincy came against the same opponents when the Tigers clean swept the West Indies 3-0 at the Caribbean for the very first time.

The highest point of Tamim’s time as the ODI captaincy came in March of 2022, when the Southpaw led Bangladesh to a 2-1 ODI series win against South Africa in South Africa.

ICC launched the ODI Super League in 2020, a competition to determine which eight teams will directly qualify for the 2023 World Cup.

It was one of the chief challenges for Tamim as captain to ensue Bangladesh finish in the top eight. Tamim  overcame that challenge with flying colours as Bangladesh finished third in the competition, above teams like India, Australia and Pakistan.

Tamim has overall led Bangladesh in 37 ODIs. The Tigers won 21 of those games, lost 14 while two ended in no results. His win percentage as captain stands at 56.75, just a shade behind Mashrafe whose win percentage as captain is 56.81.

However, this stat doesn’t provide the complete picture. Before becoming the full time skipper, Tamim led Bangladesh in a three-match ODI series against Sri Lanka, where the Tigers lost all three matches.

So, as the fulltime skipper, Tamim’s win percentage is actually 61.76, which is much higher than Mashrafe.

After winning away series against South Africa and the West Indies, the Bangladesh ODI team was flying high. But in August of 2022, the Zimbabweans brought Bangladesh down to earth.

Zimbabwe won the first two ODIs in Harare to seal the three-match series. Bangladesh completed a consolation win in the third ODI to avoid the embarrassment of a clean sweep defeat.

Another low point in Tamim’s captaincy happened on March this year, when England ended Bangladesh’s unbeaten run in ODI series at home.

After losing the home ODI series to England in 2016, Bangladesh had won their next seven 50-over series at home on the trot.

But that unbeaten run ended when England took an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series. Much like the Zimbabwe series of the previous year, the Tigers picked up a consolation victory in the last match.

Pressure was mounting on Tamim in the last 6-7 months of his captaincy. His back was troubling him constantly, runs were drying up from his bat and his captaincy style was being labeled as uninspired.

In July, things took a turn for the worse after he said he would play the first ODI of the Afghanistan series even though he wasn’t a 100 per cent fit.

BCB president Nazmul Hassan didn’t take kindly to this remark and blasted Tamim in the media for using an international match to assess his fitness.

Bangladesh lost the match, but that defeat was overshadowed by what happened the following day.

Tamim called a press conference in Chattogram where he announced he is retiring from cricket with immediate effect.

For the next 28 hours, Tamim’s sudden retirement was the biggest talking point in the entire country, with everyone coming up with their own interpretation about what led to this situation and what will happen next.

But the next day, after a meeting with prime minister Sheikh Hasina where the BCB president and former captain Mashrafe was also present, Tamim reversed his retirement and announced he will return in action with the Asia Cup.

One could say that the retirement saga had a happy ending. But amidst all this drama, everyone almost forgot that there was a series going on against Afghanistan.

Even though there is no way to quantify how much Tamim’s retirement saga affected the players in the Bangladesh team, the disjointed performance of the Tigers in the second ODI gave enough indication that it did, in fact, had an adverse effect.

The defeat in the second ODI meant Bangladesh had lost a home ODI series against Afghanistan for the very first time.

Had Tamim had a conversation with the BCB president and other board officials about his injury concern and his thoughts on captaincy before retiring out of the blue, it’s likely that the entire retirement drama could’ve been avoided. So, Tamim can be held responsible for this drama, at least partially.

But before the retirement drama, in February this year Tamim was dragged to the centre of another debate about something that should’ve never come out to the public in the first place.

BCB president Nazmul Hassan in an interview revealed something that had been speculated for a long time. Tamim Iqbal and Shakib Al Hasan, two of Bangladesh’s biggest cricketers, are not on speaking terms.

The rift was apparent to keen observers for a long time. One of the biggest hints came in 2020, when Tamim was conducting online interviews of his peers and former players. After his interview with New Zealand’s Kane Williamson, Tamim revealed that he had approached Shakib for an interview, but the all-rounder, who was at the time serving a ban and living in the US, declined his offer due to personal reasons.

Tamim told his audience to not look to deep into Shakib’s refusal, but that did little to stop the speculations from running rampant.

The cat was out of the bag after Nazmul’s interview and Tamim, as the captain, needed to clarify the situation.

To his credit, Tamim handled a difficult situation expertly in a press conference, saying that their personal relationship had no effect on what happens on the field. Off the field, their relationship might be a bit frosty but on the field they communicate.

But what Tamim couldn’t manage in the end was his back pain, which led him to remove himself from captaincy with just two months to go before the World Cup.