From Minhajul to Tamim: Bangladesh World Cup team and controversies

To find the answer to the question – who will win the World Cup – we have to wait for about two more months. But Bangladesh has already defeated the nine other competing teams by a huge margin at one thing.

Being the last team to announce the squad for the World Cup was enough to make Bangladesh stand out among all competing teams. But the suspense leading up to Bangladesh’s squad announcement was incomparable. Has any other team in the World Cup gone through such dramatic turn of events? I don’t think so.

The person who was guaranteed to lead Bangladesh in the World Cup, is now not even in the squad! The apparent reason for it is injury. In the past too, many famous players have fallen victim to this assassin and have been ruled out of the World Cup. But Tamim’s case is not as straightforward. Retiring out of the blue, then unretiring the very next day under the directive of the prime minister… Who would’ve thought that after such a return he would end up becoming a spectator in the World Cup! That too after a drama over his inclusion or exclusion that caused an uproar throughout the country. All of this seems more like a script of a movie.

While following the drama or debacle, whichever you prefer to call it, over Tamim since Monday night, the thought that that came to mind was this is hardly a new thing for Bangladesh! As Bangladesh have never announces a World Cup squad without any controversy!

It’s natural to not pick a player if there are doubts about his fitness. But in this case, this natural order is being questioned because the name of the player is Tamim Iqbal. He is without any doubt the best opener in the history of Bangladesh cricket. So naturally, the question is being asked that could Bangladesh afford the luxury of dropping Tamim even though he is doubtful to feature in every match.  

Even more questions are being asked because of his relationship with Shakib Al Hasan, the player he had handed the captaincy baton to. The once inseparable buddies have been actively avoiding each other outside of the field for a long time now.

So after learning about Shakib’s reservations about keeping an ‘unfit’ Tamim in the squad a question has popped up in my mind. If Shakib’s relationship with Tamim was like it used to be in the past, would Shakib declare that he needs Tamim in the World Cup, even if it is for five-six matches.

We can only imagine what the answer to this question would’ve been.

Controversies have always followed Bangladesh’s World Cup squad announcements. Before almost every World Cup, the things happening off the field have overshadowed whatever was happening on the field. Sometimes it was because of team selection, in other times it was some other reason.

It all started in 1999, during Bangladesh’s first participation in the World Cup. At the centre of that controversy was the current chief selector Minhajul Abedin. In spite of hitting a century in the unofficial trial match, Minhajul was left out of the World Cup squad picked by the selection committee led by Enayet Hossain Chowdhury. That snub, however, was due to uncricketing reasons.

This created a huge uproar in the country. In the end, Minhajul joined the team in a unique manner. The cricket board held a special meeting at BKSP, disbanded the selection committee and added Minhajul in the squad. Many members of the board were not present in that meeting, not even the board president. Because of Minhajul’s inclusion, opener Jahangir Alam, who was named in the initial squad, became the 16th member of the squad and travelled with the team to England basically as a tourist.

The story before the 2003 World Cup was different. The selectors had no role in it. At the end of a press conference at Hotel Purbani before the team left for the World Cup, captain Khaled Mashud told the reporters that he will relinquish captaincy after the World Cup. That World Cup in South Africa began with a defeat against Canada and concluded with a defeat against Kenya and the entire campaign remains as a deep wound in Bangladesh cricket. Had Khaled not announced beforehand that he would step down as captain, the mantle would’ve been snatched away from him anyways. Khaled was then busy answering embarrassing questions of a committee that was formed to investigate the failure in the World Cup.

Four years later, Khaled was once again the central figure in the debacle surrounding the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies. He was the country’s best wicketkeeper at the time, but Mashud was dropped in favour of Mushfiqur Rahim considering the latter’s capabilities with the bat. There was a huge uproar over the decision throughout the country. The most interesting part of it was that 14 directors of the BCB had sent a press release on BCB’s official pad where they heavily criticised the selection panel led by Faruk Ahmed that axed Khaled.

The country was under the rule of a caretaker government at the time. The agriculture ministry secretary Abdul Aziz was the president of the cricket board at that time. Even he told the reporters that he will talk with selectors about the decision and he might even call a board meeting.

Controversies didn’t stop in the World Cup at home in 2011 as well. Leading up to it, Mashrafe and Shakib played musical chairs with captaincy for some time. It ended when Shakib was named as the captain for the World Cup a while before the World Cup, but then the new topic for controversy became whether the injured Mashrafe will be a part of the World Cup team. Mashrafe still feels he was fit enough to play in that World Cup. After the team was announced at the BCB Academic building, Mashrafe was in tears while speaking with the reporters at the academy ground. A crowd had gathered outside and was chanting ‘Mashrafe’ ‘Mashrafe’ at the time.

In the 2015 World Cup, the controversy was around Rubel Hossain. Even a month before the World Cup in Australia-New Zealand, he was in jail. It needs no reminder that the charges made against him were very serious in nature.

What happened before the 2019 World Cup, however, can’t exactly be called a debacle.

In 2018, Mashrafe became an Awami League candidate in the national election. He didn’t seem awfully thrilled about that prospect, instead, I can still clearly remember Mashrafe being worried sick whether he will be able to play in the World Cup if he becomes a member of the parliament. Who knows whether that played a role in Mashrafe being a shadow of himself as a bowler in the World Cup.

Now, you can add Tamim to this list and agree with me, Bangladesh’s World Cup squad and controversies always go hand in hand.

*This report appeared in the print and online edition of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten for the English edition by Ashfaq-Ul-Alam Niloy