“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

Former Bangladesh opener Tamim Iqbal said Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli deserve all the credit for the team’s success but India wouldn’t have achieved so much if the Board of Control for Cricket in India had not been that strong. 

The BCCI is the richest cricket board in the world and the IPL has played a key role in taking Indian cricket to new heights. Meanwhile, the veteran duo of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have played an instrumental role in the success of the team over the years.

Rohit scored 257 runs in the T20 World Cup 2024 in eight matches whereas Kohli scored a match-winning knock of 76 runs off 59 balls in the final against South Africa at Barbados.

“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 in an interview with Sportstar.

“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.”

Meanwhile, Bangladesh lost the opening Test match against India at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai by a huge margin of 280 runs. The Tigers won by 2-0 against Pakistan while playing away but could not replicate the same show against India.