Tamim Tamim will be captain in World Cup: Papon

Bangladesh One-Day International (ODI) captain Tamim Iqbal is currently in Dubai with his family on vacation. Right before that, Tamim was at the centre of a retirement saga, which saw him retire from the game out of the blue and announce his return in less than 24 hours later after a meeting with prime minister Sheikh Hasina.

After the meeting with the PM, it was announced that Tamim will rejoin the national team in the Asia Cup as the team’s captain. Tamim is supposed to travel to England from Dubai to get treatment for his back troubles and then return to Bangladesh to lead the team.

However, there is still some uncertainty over whether Tamim will remain as skipper. Before leaving for Dubai, Tamim spoke with two local media where he said that he will have a meeting with the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) after returning and a lot will depend on the outcome of that meeting.

However, the BCB president Nazmul Hassan has no doubts that Tamim will remain as Bangladesh’s captain in 50-over cricket.

“I want to say one thing in very simple terms. Tamim will be our captain in the World Cup,” Nazmul told the press after his meeting with the national women’s team in a hotel in Dhaka on Sunday.

“As Tamim didn’t play two matches (against Afghanistan), Litton (Das) captained the team. Now, if Tamim returns he will be named the captain. If he doesn’t play, someone else will lead the team. We are not sure which matches he can play, when he will be ready to play again,” he added.

Not just captaincy, the issue of Tamim’s injury also came up. Tamim has been suffering from back problems for a long time. In the two interviews before going to Dubai, Tamim pointed finger towards the national team’s trainers, physio and medical wing members, indirectly blaming some of them for the exacerbation of his back injury.

The board president initially didn’t want to say anything on the matter. But he later said, “I don’t want to comment on the matter. Because I don’t know why, in what situation he said those things. Is he trying to say that the people who are helping him train are trying to harm him? I don’t know what his objective was behind saying something like this. For two years, whatever he has asked for we have provided it. Whenever he wanted to go overseas for treatment, we have sent him. We never heard before that there was an issue.”

The BCB president also said that the board will do anything to help Tamim regain fitness, “Now he said that he had gone to a physician who told him that he either has to take an injection or have a surgery. Whatever is needed, we will do it. There is no doubt about that.”

Mahmudullah’s name also came up in the press conference. Will the all-rounder return to the ODI team? Nazmul bypassed the question, “It’s really difficult for me to say. I can’t say anything about it right now. It’s tough for me to say anything about him before talking to the selectors.”

“If he had played in the series (against Afghanistan), I could’ve confidently spoken about him. As he didn’t play, I have no thoughts on whether he will return to the team or not. I can’t just say, ‘Yes, he will play’ without seeing him play at first.”

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