Cricket | Tamim Iqbal - Requim for a father's dream

There are few people who know Bangladesh and its cricket better than Tamim Iqbal. Having been part of the team for more than a decade, Tamim now stands as one of Bangladesh cricket's biggest stars. He is their top run-scorer in each of the three formats, he is only one of two players, Shakib Al Hasan being the other one, to score more than 10000 international runs.

Tamim has seen Bangladesh through their highs and lows. Similarly, his career too has been through its share of dips and peaks. Since the start of 2015, however, Tamim has raised his game. His averages took a spike, and his team started to become more of a force.

The left-handed opener speaks to Cricbuzz about what changed, and why; who helped him, and how. He also spoke about his attachment to his father, the different coaches and mentors who've helped mould, and re-mould, his game and how much he admires Virat Kohli.

Tamim has scored over 10000 runs for Bangladesh. © Getty

Excerpts:

Coming from a family that has produced two cricketers who represented Bangladesh - Akram Khan (uncle) and Nafees Iqbal (brother) - what were the expectations like while growing up? Also, your father was a famous football coach, that too must have had an impact?

For me, it was very easy to pick up sports and cricket was the new trend when we won the ICC Qualifier (1997). Cricket was big back then. Somehow from childhood, I loved cricket, maybe because of my uncle, who was playing everywhere and everyone was following. My elder brother was playing too, getting into sports or cricket wasn't a surprise for me. If you ever visit Chittagong, you will see my house is located very close to the stadium, the older Test venue, that is a five-minute walk from my house.

My father always wanted me to play cricket, he was handicapped, unfortunately losing his leg due to an illness. With his fake leg, he used to do umpiring and make sure that I keep on batting. He had a dream that I will play for Bangladesh. I was very, very close to my father. Normally, sons are close to mothers, but I was very close to my father.

I think I was about to play the Under-13s the day my father passed away. When he was getting into an ambulance, he had a heart attack. The last thing he had said to me, "Don't worry, go to bed, I will come and watch you play tomorrow."

That was the first big tournament I was about to play, it was the Under-13 division tournament and was happening for the first time in Bangladesh. That is the memory I had of my father, "Go back to bed, I will come and watch you tomorrow."

After that, I kept on playing as I grew up. I am just trying to chase my father's dream. That is the biggest motivation for me to play cricket, unfortunately he neither saw me or my brother play for the country but I am sure he is up there and happy watching me.

Your family is known for its love for food. How tough was it to let go of your love for food and how did this entire fitness awareness come in? Were you inspired by someone?

I admire what Virat [Kohli] is doing, I wish I can (do) what he's doing. I don't think I am near him as a professional athlete. If somebody in this sector has to idolise, he's the perfect idol. For me, things were very different. I come from a family which is known both as a sports and a food family in Chittagong. If you ever ask about my father, the first thing they will say is, he used to love food. We are a joint family, we are crazy about food.

Somehow because I was playing cricket and was away from home, that helped. If you see me in 2013-14, or through 2010-12, you will see a big change in what I was and what I am now. I got better at my fitness and food habits after the 2015 World Cup where I had a long chat with Chandika Hathurusingha. He was and the current trainer, Mario, were the ones who helped me. I had a poor tour, and after the last match against India, I went to Hathurusingha and asked him what should I do. He always had zero doubts about my ability, he rated me very highly but he had a big question mark on my fitness. That was the time I changed myself. I won't say I am perfect, fitness-wise and maintaining a diet, I have a long way to go. That was the time when I tried to change myself. My weight now and what it was in 2015, the difference is eight kilos. That's a big change for me, I think I can do much better.

Virat is the prime example, but we have examples in our team too. Someone like Mushfiqur Rahim, how he maintains himself, how he trains, his food habits, I don't need to see too far ahead because I have someone in my team who is exactly the same. He's also an inspiration for me. In the coming years, if I can get better in my fitness and diet, I think I will be able to perform better.

Now we have set very high standards, we are beating big teams regularly, but that used to be a very rare occasion before 2015. When the team has to change, something has to change and because I wasn't playing well, was criticised very badly at home, there was something I was doing wrong. I don't think fitness will make you score runs but I am a big believer fitness will help you to score runs. It's a priority now.

Someone like Hathurusingha and now Mario telling me that, 'Try to get better with your fitness and see the difference in your batting.' At that time, I had everything to lose because my position in the team was also in doubt, so I had to do something I had never done before.

I worked really hard when I came back from the World Cup, I had a month off before the Pakistan series. And I saw massive success in that series where I scored back to back tons in the ODIs and a double hundred in Tests. That helped too. In the tri-nation series, I scored two hundreds and a fifty. It helped that I got success very quickly. It made me believe that I should keep doing the hardwork and keep getting fitter and fitter. Sometimes you are playing so much, it's hard to maintain but this is the next step I have to learn.

There seems to be a conscious change in your batting approach now. Earlier, you used to spend a lot of time in the nets whereas you have cut down drastically on the same now. How did that change occur?

My batting mentor was Jamie Siddons, he was the coach of our team at that time, he was the best batting coach I ever had. I remember what he used to tell me during his time. There was a time during 2015 when I had my own methods to go and bat long, etc which never really worked [on a consistent basis]. I wasn't getting the kind of performance that I am getting now. So when I went to Siddons and asked him, 'Can you give me a plan and I will follow that plan and see if that works for me?' He gave me this plan that batting and training is not about hours, it is about intensity and purpose. When you go to the nets, you need to have a purpose, you need to know what you are doing, what you want to achieve from that particular session.

Previously, it was about volume, about hitting balls, probably not with much purpose but that's what he brought into my game. What I do now is not bat for more than 15-20 minutes but my intensity is very high, probably match-kind of intensity and I work on my weaknesses and not on my stronger points. Because it is easy to go into the nets and play those drives, etc. There are people bowling into your body and trying to bounce out, the areas where I don't like to play, that's where I am focusing more on. You can sense it before a game that this is the plan they are going to come up with, every cricketer can sense what the opposition might do. I practise on those areas where I think the opposition might attack me. These are the changes I have made.

You tend to fall back on Mohammad Salahuddin, too? How has he helped you as a cricketer?

Salahuddin is a person who, when I am in trouble, I go to. He's a local coach and he's seen me from 2007 when I first played in the national team. Actually, he has seen me before that when I was playing U-15 and 17. He was the part of the national team in 2007, he used to throw me a lot of balls, he knows everything about my batting. He has been a big influence too, especially batting against spin, I have learnt a lot from him. Few of the shots I play, he has asked or shown me how to play. I have always (maintained) that Jamie, Salahuddin and Hathurusingha have had a deep impact on my career.

Tamim has put emphasis on his fitness in the last few years. © Getty

Which match do you think was the turning point in your career?

I won't say that the Khulna Test was the turning point of my career... I think the first match against Pakistan which we won, where I scored 132 in that ODI, I think that was the game which turned it around, because before that game I was not sure if I will be in the eleven or not. I was under tremendous amount of pressure, probably not given to me but created by me. There were talks in social media and everywhere else... these things happen. Tremendous amount of support from the team and coaching staff helped, because at that time I was under pressure and I thought that my spot will be in trouble. I played the game and scored a match-winning hundred, I think that changed a lot of things.

So do you take social media seriously? Like you said, it has piled a lot of pressure on you in the past? How do you see it now?

During that time, I used to take the social media stuff, the media stuff, very seriously and that's how I used to create pressure on myself. After that, I started taking it as a joke. I don't think I follow too much of social media, I won't say I don't read articles or newspapers, but it's not regular. If I have done well, I will definitely read, but if I have not done well, I know what can be written but that's very fair from the media part because that's how it is. I don't take it seriously anymore and I think that's a big change.

(It's not) a self-call. Mashrafe [Mortaza] played a role. In 2015, I was very down and was criticised everywhere. He's elder to me but he's very close to me, he's like a friend to me. I share a lot of things with him. He gave me this idea [to stop following social media], I tried to follow it and it worked for me.

I don't take unnecessary pressure anymore. What I learnt in those bad times was when you go through a lean patch and when people start to criticise you, you start to think that, 'I will show them who I am, etc'. I never understood that actually I am putting myself under tremendous pressure by trying to prove someone else wrong. This is one thing I have learnt, the next time if I go through a bad patch in my career, I don't think I need to prove anything to anyone. People know what I have done for Bangladesh, how many runs I have scored, so when these sort of things happen, I will handle it better.

You have always been a very forthright speaker and that has landed you in a lot of trouble on many occasions. Do you feel you have been misunderstood? And have you now mellowed down? In the whole pandemonium that occurred in that game against Sri Lanka, you looked like one of the few who was in complete control of emotions...

I have been misunderstood a lot of times. I am a very emotional person and I think when I am playing for a team, it's my duty to stand up for that team. When I am playing for Bangladesh and see something's wrong, I am not shy to speak up. It's by birth that I am that kind of a person, I don't (pretend to be something) I am not. That sometimes puts me in trouble. I have never had any bad intentions when I am speaking, when I have had any outburst. There's a lot of things, there were BPL incidents, few domestic incidents, I am not saying I was 100 percent right during those incidents and there were cases when I could have said things differently.

For me, it's whatever I do, it's not fake, I don't lie. If I am saying something, I have my own reasoning behind it. I don't try to hurt anyone, I don't try to look down on anyone or any team, this is what I actually feel. Sometimes I feel I am too open and straightforward. If you see the BPL incident, it was 2-3 months, I can't change in a few months. What I try to do nowadays, I don't like getting into unnecessary trouble but if I see something is wrong, I will still speak up. That's in me, I can't hide it. People don't like it. Those who know me, understand me. Nobody can find a single incident in history where you can find that I am speaking for me, it has always been either about a player or the team or something.

Even when you come to Bangladesh and meet people, they will tell you that I am very arrogant. I am not. I am a very friendly person but my problem is I don't talk to people I don't know. That gave them the impression that I am very arrogant. The guys in the team who I am close with will tell you - I talk the most, I joke the most. Someone like Kohli, people have a certain opinion about him, but they would not know him. Whenever I have had a chance of speaking to him, I felt he was very nice. If I had to ever take any advice, he has been very open and humble. But people have an opinion about him, I never found him that kind of a person. Now, I have consciously ensured that whatever I am saying while speaking to someone or the press shouldn't hurt anyone. There's a lot of room to improve as a person and I am trying that now.

It must have reached that point where it has become annoying for Bangladesh players to constantly answer questions about Chandika Hathurusingha and his exit. But there must have been so much good that he did to the team. What's your take on that?

I think as a team the biggest change he brought into the Bangladesh team was tactical. I think skillwise, we are very good, we are as good as any other team. We always had issues tactically - how to use those skills right. I think that's the change he brought into the Bangladesh setup and that's how we started to get results. Individually, he gave a lot of confidence on each individual. For example, I play running down the wicket and over the cover lofted shots, so if I play that shot and get out, he never came to me and say, 'What was that?'. Even when I didn't need to play that shot and get out with it, he never came to me and questioned it. Because he knew I got a lot of runs playing that shot. He even used to say that if you are 50 for 3, and if you feel like that this ball is to be hit, go for it, don't think that you are 50 for 3. It's your shot, hit it for six. These kind of changes he brought into the team.

People started to express more with him around. There was a time when we were 60 for 4, and people batting feel, 'Shit, I can hit this bowler but I won't because we are 60 for 4, if I get out, people will kill me.' That has changed. The best example is in an ODI, I hit the first ball for a six, and off the last ball of a Test, I hit a six. You wouldn't have seen these five years back. The reason I could hit the last ball for a six, I knew even if I get out, my coach is there to back me up. He knew that's my shot. He gave that freedom and safety to each and every player.

One of the biggest changes he made was he stuck to 25-30 players for four years. So he gave chances to those players rather than going around 50-60 players. He knew these are the players who are going to do well. He brought a few players I personally never knew would play international cricket so early, probably later. Like someone like Soumya Sarkar, he had immediate success. Personally, I didn't think he had done that much in domestic to play for the national team but Hathurusingha saw something that we didn't and he made sure he got proper opportunity.

Even Fizz (Mustafizur Rahman)... Khaled Mahmud also played a part, he and Hathurusingha spotted him. When Fizz played his first international, I had never faced him in the nets, I had never seen him in my life. When he first played his first T20I, I had not seen him. He just came from nowhere and played. These kind of things he did.

Generally with a developing cricket team, they seem to take to T20 cricket easier than Tests and ODIs. But for Bangladesh, it's been a different path. What do you think is the reason behind this?

I think this is the format we should do well but we haven't done well, there's a lot to learn. This was the format we were not confident about, as a batsman, as a team. Me as a batsman, I am very clear about my ODI role, about my Test batting, probably I was not clear about my T20 batting. Should I look to attack from ball one, should I build my innings, you can attack and try to bat 15 overs... as a team, it was a question mark on us. We never played much in this format either. Especially after this tournament, people have started to gather confidence in their individual batting or bowling, everything. We chased down a total of 214, previously if we had seen this total on the board, half the job was done in the innings break itself. The body language will go down, because we had never done this before. We may not chase 200 in the next 10 T20s but the change is we know we can chase it. We know how we did it, we know the way, you won't be able to do it everyday, in the next 10 T20s, if a team scores 200, we might not win a single game, but the change we have now, we believe we can do it. Previously, we didn't believe. I think that's the most important thing, we have started to believe now.

Bangladesh tasted success in Tests at home against England and Australia. © Cricbuzz

How and when did the belief come in that you guys can be a good Test nation too? Your success at home against England and Australia bears testimony to that, and your tour of Sri Lanka was phenomenal too...

For the Tests, whatever success we had in the last two years, a lot of credit goes to then captain Mushfiqur Rahim. He was gutsy enough for us to play on those kind of wickets back home, to have a result. If you see the wickets we used to play before were no-result kind of wickets, nice wicket that would be flat, teams used to come... 400, 600 runs, we used to bat for 200, 300 runs, and lose the game. He himself decided that okay either we lose, we are losing anyway, but create something that is in our strength and try to win. Because we are losing anyway, it cannot go bad from there, but let's try and do something different that can change things.

Against England, when we prepared that spinning track, it was completely Mushfiqur's call. Even I can openly admit that I was the vice-captain and I wasn't happy with that decision. Actually, I was the one who scored the most amount of runs [laughs]. When I first heard about the idea, I wasn't happy. It was gutsy to take that call and from there, we became a very good Test team at home.

We rarely won a Test, when we got a win, and when we arrived in Sri Lanka, everybody in the group was dedicated to do really well. The first Test we lost in Galle, we as a team, only players, we had a chat and discussed we are not this bad. We started sharing our ideas, I think those kind of meetings help where people are really open. Bangladeshis are very shy, when an overseas coach along with five more overseas staff sit in the team room, people are kind of shy and don't speak often. But when you are among yourselves, you can be really open. We started to do those kind of meetings quite a lot, that doesn't mean that every meeting we do and the next match we will win, but it helps to understand each other better.

How do you look back at the IPL? Any lessons that you think made you a better cricketer?

I have zero experience in IPL, I was fortunate enough to be with a team for one year - Pune, but unfortunately I didn't get a game. Honestly, it used to feel really bad because everyone wants to play IPL. Especially in 2010, I had a bomb year, ODIs, Tests, I scored runs everywhere, against India, England. That was the first time I actually thought I will get in, that was the time I really felt bad because I had done really well internationally. 2012, I was a replacement pick, Asia Cup too I had done well, so I went there. The only sad part about IPL is it is difficult to get in but once you get in, you perform and you carry on. I never had an opportunity to perform, so that feels bad. If I had gone there, not done well, then I would have understood. But I never got an opportunity. After 2014, I stopped bothering about it.

I always put my name for the auction but I don't feel bad anymore. I watch the auctions, for the big names. In the first lot, who goes for how much, it excites me, it is a fantastic tournament. Whatever I have done in last two years, it is easy to say I expect to play IPL but if it doesn't happen, I don't think about it anymore. If they think I am good enough, they will pick me, if it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen.

Sourav Ganguly, Michael Clarke, all the overseas players... Those 40 days I just watched, what these guys do, how they are so successful. There are a lot of things that I picked, it will be difficult to identify this or that but the calmness all of them have before big games, it is unbelievable. Irrespective of how difficult the situation is, how big the game is, that calmness they have is something to learn. If you are there with them for 40 days, you start to understand how these guys have scored 10000-15000 runs. It is a great tournament, it is a great experience for any young cricketer, even for an experienced cricketer to be with the team. Just imagine someone young gets a chance to play in RCB with Virat and AB, even if they don't get a game, the amount of experience they will gather from there is incredible. I think that's the best thing about IPL.

If you see Shakib, the confidence he has, I believe is also a product of IPL. He as a Bangladeshi was the first one to play regularly and perform regularly. So he was performing with the best in the world, he carried that confidence into this team and international cricket. He shares a lot of things, he works with the best of coaches, best analysts, best support staff. So when we have team meetings in these T20 formats, he shares a lot of things. I think as a player, you grow as well.

Suppose Tamim Iqbal is going through a lot of problems. Who would he go to?

If I am going through anything mentally, there's a psychologist who is a Bangladeshi and lives in Canada, Mr. Ali Khan, he is my go to man. I call him and say something is bothering me, and I think it shouldn't be bothering me, how to get rid of that thing? He's the man I go to. He's been fantastic, I have been speaking to him since 2015, where a certain delivery or something I am not happy about, I pick up my phone and say, 'Can I have a session?' That's my mental part.

As far as my cricketing part is concerned, I relied a lot on Hathurusingha. He is not with us anymore, so it will take some time to shift but whatever he has taught me is still in my head. Whatever he had shown me, I am still practising it. I need to move forward with that. It's good that I had success, but if I just keep on doing that same thing, this success won't last long. So I have to get to the next level, I have to take another step, maybe do something differently to get even better.

While the BPL was designed to provide a platform for your own homegrown talent, it hasn't really helped much. What do you feel about the five-foreigner in an eleven policy?

I think five foreigner thing wasn't right and we have all realised that and are coming back to the four-foreigner thing. The first year was a five-foreigner thing, in the second and third, it was four and last year it went to five again. Especially a country like us, where we are trying to develop young cricketers, we shouldn't be playing more than four. Everyone has realised that and I think BCB is taking a serious note of that, it will come back to four I think.

BPL can play a huge part in how the Bangladesh national team can go forward. What IPL has done to India, someone like Dale Steyn bowls at 150 (kph), a local player is playing him, when that local player comes to the national team, he doesn't have to think about, 'Ohh this guy, I haven't faced him because you have faced them in the domestic circuit'. The locals are performing in India, that has made a massive change in Indian cricket. I am a big believer that IPL has changed Indian cricket totally. The same thing can happen to us too, if we can go on the right path, I think this can give us a massive advantage.

The World T20 game loss to India at Bengaluru has been talked about enough, and even when you won by chasing down 214, it was brought up again. Did it take a lot of time to get over it?

I think the Bangalore game definitely helped. We were so happy after Mushfiqur hit those two boundaries, even me standing just outside the dressing room, I never thought that we would need just two runs from three balls, we need to take a one and it will do. We were so happy that we just wanted to finish the game and run and celebrate and all that. Probably, similar things happened to Mushfiqur as well. He was so excited that he never thought we can easily win this game rather than going for a big one.

That got us back to our feet, until the last ball is bowled, the match is not over. One prime example was when we chased down 214, he could have gone for the glory shot which he didn't, he made sure that we finish the game and then start to celebrate. That game, Asia Cup Final in 2012, too, still hurts. Nowadays, everyone is a big time Youtube watcher, whenever that clip comes up, none of us click that because it still hurts.

We never discussed the Bangalore game. Took us a long time to get over it, not just players but as a team, family, friends... people for a certain time, they stopped watching cricket in Bangladesh. We got knocked out but the World Cup wasn't over, people didn't watch those games. People were very disappointed.

After that game, we played another game, against New Zealand. We bowled them out for 140, (but) we were not in the game. Mentally, we were not there. It took us a long time to get over it.

(CRICBUZZ)