‘It is embarrassing - players play, I don't’

There is an old joke about Bangladeshi cricket administration: the board president is available on only two occasions, one is when the Tigers win a series, and second, in the event of an election.

For over a decade under Nazmul Hassan Papon, the first half of that joke held up with uncomfortable consistency. But under the newly elected Tamim Iqbal’s tutelage the waves are changing.  

When the Tigers beat England in Mirpur in 2016, one of the greatest victories in Bangladesh Test history, Papon, who had been abroad during the match, returned home and promptly told reporters: "We deserve this Test win. Bangladesh can compete with any team from any level in any format now." 

We. The collective pronoun did a lot of heavy lifting.

It was not unusual. Papon had earned the reputation of an unwanted intruder during his tenure, involving himself in all cricketing matters and undermining the independent functioning of the board's departments and committees. 

His tenure was defined with another media stunt, the famous “Jumma-Bit”. After the jumma prayers every Friday, journalists used to line up in front of the mosque or his home, and had a mini presser. 

His 12 years at the helm were defined as much by his proximity to success as by his distance from accountability. And on days of victories, it gave way to something more comfortable like ownership. 

Papon's successor, Faruque Ahmed, arrived in August 2024 with a reputation as a cricket thinker — a reserved person in contrast to his predecessor. He walked into the role almost simultaneously with the most significant result in Bangladesh's Test history: a 2-0 series win in Rawalpindi, Bangladesh's first-ever series victory over Pakistan. 

The temptation proved irresistible. Despite a Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) directive that media interaction would not be allowed at the team reception, Faruque openly engaged with the press and inserted himself into the triumph with relish: "The most exciting part is our pace bowling unit. I have never seen a pace bowling attack like this from Bangladesh in my lifetime." 

In a separate interview, he described the series as "clearly one of the best we have ever played." The "we" was doing the same work it had always done in Mirpur corridors. 

Faruque was barely 72 hours into his presidency. The players had been preparing for months.

His tenure ended the way his predecessor's had — in noise and dispute.

Then came Aminul Islam Bulbul, Bangladesh's first Test centurion, a man with a long CV in International Cricket Council development work and a taste for the dramatic entrance. On his very first day as BCB president, he told reporters: "Since time is short... I have come here to play a quick T20 innings. I will play a good T20 innings, which you all will remember." 

The grandiosity arrived before a single result. His tenure, consumed by the T20 World Cup standoff with India, a player boycott over a director's inflammatory remarks about cricketers, and an election mired in allegations, produced more headlines of the wrong kind than wins of any kind. 

Since August 2024, in less than two years, the BCB has seen four presidents. Now, the fourth of them, Tamim Iqbal, who holds the record for the most international centuries by a Bangladeshi with 25 hundreds and the only Bangladeshi to score tons in all three formats, sits in the chair they all wanted and says something none of them said.

"It is embarrassing (to be credited for the series win)," he said, when speaking to Daily Sun about taking credit for recent series wins on Tuesday. "I am being given credit for all the series wins but I don't have any contribution towards that. All the credit should be given to players and members of the team management. I shouldn't be credited for something I haven't done and it's quite embarrassing to say the least," he cited.

Three words cut through the institutional language of 12 years of BCB press conferences.

"Players play, I don't," Tamim said to Daily Sun.

Tamim has been specific about where his focus actually lies. "You can praise or criticise me if I can make the pipeline strong in my tenure along with developing facilities and make the board more transparent and functional — because that is where I am putting all my focus, rather than taking credit for series win achievement, " he added.

For three presidents in a row, the chair was the thing — something to acquire, to hold, to fight for when it was taken. For Tamim, the question seems to be what the chair is actually for. At 37, he is the youngest head of Bangladesh cricket. He has the platform, the credibility, and now the institutional power.