"Can praise Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli as much, but had the BCCI not been that strong, the team wouldn’t have achieved so much" - Tamim Iqbal
Bangladesh batter Tamim Iqbal has praised the BCCI for Team India's incredible success over the past few years. He mentioned the same to point to the importance of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) being aligned with the vision of achieving ultimate success.
After showing promise by reaching the knockout stages of the 2015 ODI World Cup and the 2017 Champions Trophy, Bangladesh have slid off in the previous few ICC events.
In an interview with Sportstar, Tamim felt the Board must ensure their preparations for the marquee events are on point.
"The people at the top need to have a clear plan in terms of what they want to achieve. The captain wants to win the trophy, the coach wants to win the trophy, but the question is - does the Board want it, too? In India, you can praise Rohit Sharma, and Virat Kohli as much as you can, but had the BCCI not been that strong, the team wouldn’t have achieved so much," said Tamim.
He added:
"Look, there are ifs and buts to it. In the previous BCB regime, there were three former captains involved in the administration. Did the last Board do everything wrong? No, they also did a lot of good things, you cannot deny that. I might have had issues with two or three people at the BCB, but that does not mean that they don’t have any achievements. This time, the president is also a cricketer, so you have to give him a certain period of time and then judge."
Last month, Faruque Ahmed became the first-ever BCB president to have played for Bangladesh (7 ODIs),
Meanwhile, Bangladesh endured disappointing campaigns in their last two ICC events - the 2023 ODI and 2024 T20 World Cups with pre-semi-final exits.
Bangladesh enjoyed one of their all-time highs in recent Pakistan Tests
Bangladesh rebounded from their sub-par 2024 T20 World Cup campaign with a stunning 2-0 Test series win over Pakistan in Pakistan.
Having never won a Test match against Pakistan, Najmul Hossain Shanto's men overcame several dicey moments in both matches to win by 10 and six wickets, respectively.
It was a third win for Bangladesh in six Tests during the 2023-25 World Test Championship (WTC), having drawn the New Zealand home series at the end of last year 1-1.
However, their joy was cut short when they suffered a massive 280-run defeat to India in the first Test of the ongoing two-match series in India.
The second Test is in progress and a draw looks the likeliest outcome with Bangladesh at 107/3 in their first innings after three rain-marred days.