Bangladesh's greatest ever opening batsman, Tamim Iqbal's shock announcement of retirement from international cricket stunned the entire cricket fraternity Thursday afternoon.
Tamim, who retired from Twenty20 internationals in 2022, decided to bring an end to his One Day International and Test career at a press conference in Chittagong in the middle of the Bangladesh-Afghanistan ODI series where he was the captain.
"The match against Afghanistan Wednesday was the last of my career. From this moment onwards, I'm saying goodbye to international cricket. I did not take this decision suddenly. I've been thinking about this for a while. There are different reasons, I don't think I have to mention those. I talked to my family regarding this. It occurred to me that this was the right moment. I'm retiring from international cricket. I thank everyone,” red-eyed Tamim said with tears in his eyes.
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Emotional Tamim shed tears several times during the media briefing and thanked everyone associated with him during his long 16-year career.
Bangladesh lost the first game against Afghanistan Wednesday and batted poorly.
Tamim scored just 13 in the first ODI and that will be his last knock in the international arena as things stand.
There was no practice or media session in the port city for the Bangladesh cricket team but when Tamim invited journalists to attend a press conference Thursday noon, rumors started spreading that some big announcement might be coming.
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There were some concerns that Tamim might give up captaincy and focus on his batting ahead of the Asia Cup and World Cup, two very big and important tournaments for the Tigers this year which are just months away.
But when Tamim announced his retirement from international cricket completely, it came as a shocker.
Tamim's fitness and injury concerns have become talking points in recent months.
Due to the injury, he missed the one-off Test match against Afghanistan and before the ODI series, he again complained about stiff back.
On the eve of matchday against Afghanistan, Tamim answered a question regarding his fitness.
The Chittagong lad said he is not 100% fit but that he will play the first match and assess how he can cope with it as the game goes on.
It was learnt that such a statement from Tamim angered some part of the team management while a few even wanted to give him rest in the whole ODI series.
Also Read: List of Tamim's international centuries
The Bangladesh Cricket Board president Nazmul Hasan however, lashed out at Tamim for this statement.
In an interview with local media, he questioned Tamim's integrity, quoting, “This is not gully cricket, how can a player assess his fitness while playing international cricket?”
The BCB boss also said the coach called him and had a heated argument on this issue.
Such reactions from the top brass might have triggered Tamim to take the decision but the left-hander said in the press conference that the retirement idea was not a heat of the moment thing and that such thoughts were hovering in his mind in recent times.
Besides Tamim's fitness issue, there were some discussions doing the rounds regarding his batting form and approach (strike rate) in white-ball cricket in last three years.
As far as his ODI performance is concerned in the last three years, Tamim has scored 464 runs in 12 matches with 38.33 average and 77.68 strike rate in 2021, 408 runs in 12 games with 40.82 average and 79.68 strike rate in 2022 and 239 runs with 26.55 average and 74.92 strike rate this year.
Along with Tamim's fitness concern and performance, it was also rumored that he was not fully supported as a captain by some part of the BCB hierarchy and team management in recent months.
As ODI skipper, Tamim won 21 out of 37 encounters and led Bangladesh to a third-place finish in the ODI Super League, ensuring direct qualification for the World Cup in India this October and November.
Under his leadership, Bangladesh won a bilateral series against South Africa away in 2022.
Also Read: Tamim's top 6 moments in international cricket
With the 50-over World Cup beginning in October, Tamim's shocking retirement shook Bangladesh cricket to the core.
Tamim has scored more than 15,000 runs and 25 centuries across all three formats in his illustrious 16-year international career.
From the moment a 17-year old kid charged down the ground to whack a sixer against Zaheer Khan in the 2007 World Cup, to back-to-back Test centuries in Lord's and Manchester Tests, or scoring the T20I hundred (only one for Bangladesh so far) against Oman in windy and chilly Dharamsala in the 2016 T20 World Cup and forming an unbroken partnership to secure ODI series against the Proteas on South African soil; Tamim has made countless memories for Bangladesh fans to cherish over the years and broke number of records to register his name in the cricket history of Bangladesh.
The end could have, and should have, been happier than this.
But whatever the reasons might be behind this shocking decision, Tamim Iqbal will be remembered as the most iconic opener and one of the greatest batsmen, if not the best, in the history of Bangladesh cricket.
