Tamim Iqbal 'an Indian agent'? BCB official invites ire of Bangladesh players

In a political season where the words 'India' and 'agent' get tossed around in Bangladesh with the same carelessness as confetti — from campus brawls to cabinet gossip — it was perhaps inevitable that cricket would get dragged into the conspiracy mill too. So when a senior Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) official decided to call former captain Tamim Iqbal “an Indian agent,” the reaction from the dressing room was less amused than appalled.

Iqbal, one of the finest openers Bangladesh has produced, had gently advised the BCB not to be driven by emotion while deciding whether the national team should play the T20 World Cup in India. For this grievous crime — measured somewhere between sensible advice and common sense — he was rewarded with a Facebook post in which Nazmul, chairman of the BCB finance committee, called the left-hander opener “an Indian agent”.

“This time, the people of Bangladesh witnessed, with their own eyes, the emergence of yet another proven Indian agent,” he wrote, earning the sort of backlash normally reserved for dodgy umpiring decisions.

The pushback came from former and current cricketers, including Taskin Ahmed, Mominul Haque and Taijul Islam, while the Cricketers’ Welfare Association of Bangladesh (CWAB) issued a statement that was one-third outrage, one-third disappointment, and one-third lesson in basic dignity.

“A comment made by BCB director M. Nazmul Islam regarding former national captain Tamim Iqbal has come to the attention of the Cricketers' Welfare Association of Bangladesh. We are stunned, shocked, and outraged by it.”

The players’ body went on: “Such a remark by a board official about the most successful opener in Bangladesh's history, who represented the country for 16 years, is utterly condemnable. Not only because it concerns a player like Tamim, but such comments about any cricketer of the country are unacceptable and insulting to the entire cricketing community.”

Tamim, for the record, played 70 Tests, 243 ODIs and 78 T20Is in a career that belongs to Bangladesh’s cricket textbooks, not its conspiracy feuilletons. CWAB was not done: “We strongly protest against this comment. When a responsible board director makes such remarks on a public platform, it also raises serious questions about the code of conduct of board officials.”

The association said it had lodged a formal protest with the BCB president: “We have already submitted a protest letter to the BCB president, demanding a public apology from the concerned board director and that he be brought under accountability. We hope the BCB president will take appropriate action as soon as possible.”

The spark for this drama was Bangladesh writing to the International Cricket Council asking that their T20 World Cup matches be moved out of India after the BCCI instructed IPL franchise KKR to release Mustafizur Rehman ahead of the 2026 edition. Into this combustible mix walked a Facebook post and the familiar accusation of Indian strings being pulled — a trope that is enjoying a rather energetic run in Bangladesh’s political climate of late.

Observers will remember that the same fevered imagination has recently been deployed around the killing of student leader Sharif Osman Hadi — where television debate panels confidently speculated about mysterious Indian hands, even though the police chargesheet made no mention of India at all and instead identified the motive as “political vengeance” within Bangladesh’s own power struggles. None of that seems to have slowed the rumour factory; it has merely diversified into new industries, cricket now included.

Back in the calmer world of actual sport, players tried to redirect the conversation to things that matter. “Cricket is the life of Bangladesh. A recent comment surrounding a former national captain who has made a major contribution to the game has caused many to reflect,” said pacer Taskin. “I believe that such remarks directed at a former cricketer of the country are not helpful in the interest of Bangladesh cricket. I hope the concerned authorities will consider the matter seriously and adopt a more responsible stance in the future.”

Mominul was even blunter: “The comment made by BCB director M. Nazmul Islam regarding former national captain Tamim Iqbal is completely unacceptable and insulting to the country's cricketing community. Such behaviour towards a cricketer is in direct conflict with the board's responsibility and ethics.

“A senior cricketer was not given even the minimum respect; instead, he was deliberately humiliated in public. Such remarks show a lack of even basic decorum regarding where and how to speak while holding such a high responsibility. I strongly condemn this comment and firmly demand a public apology from the concerned director and that he be brought under accountability. I call upon the BCB to take swift and strict action.”

With PTI inputs