Bangladesh opener Tamim Iqbal lost his cool on Thursday after he was asked about his Test century drought and asked to be left alone regarding the matter at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Thursday. Tamim scored 95 and 70 runs in the ongoing second Test against New Zealand, raising in each innings the prospect of a century – something that has eluded him since the England tour in 2010.
‘In the first innings I was disappointed not to get a hundred, but so much has been said about this issue that eventually it is me who is being harmed,’ Tamim said at a press briefing after play ended on day four.
‘You [media] people should understand that. There is a limit to everything, but everyday whenever you meet me I hear ‘the century is not happening,’ he continued.
‘Who doesn’t want to score a century? You have to understand that cricket is a mental game. These questions are an extra pressure for me so I would request you not to ask me these kinds of questions.’
The left-hander’s foul mood and agitated state became clearer when he asked
the journalist who raised the question how he should play the game.
‘If I play aggressively, everyone says ‘you are aggressive’; if I play slow, everyone says ‘you are slow’; so you people tell me what I am supposed to do.’
‘This has gone to an extreme now – if I play normally you say I am too aggressive and if I play sedately you say I am slow. What’s wrong with you guys? Just let me play my game please. Let me play my game,’ he implored.
‘One day I was thinking ‘thank God [Indian batsman Virender] Sehwag was not born in Bangladesh’. If he was, he would have forgotten how to play cricket. Yes, media is part of cricket, but to focus on one thing so much is not a part of cricket,’ he added.
-With New Age input
