Bangladesh appoints Tamim Iqbal as country’s youngest cricket chief

Former Bangladesh captain takes charge after previous board dissolved.

Bangladesh has dissolved its cricket board, citing “gross irregularities” in an election last year, and appointed an interim leadership headed by former captain Tamim Iqbal, the National Sports Council says.

Cricket and politics go hand in hand in Bangladesh, and the sport was hit by the turmoil that racked the country after a 2024 uprising ousted longtime ruler Sheikh Hasina. A new government was elected in February.

“An independent committee under the National Sports Council has found gross irregularities in the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) election held in 2025,” Aminul Ehsan, director of sports at the government body, told reporters on Tuesday.

The committee said a “significant number of irregularities took place” during the BCB election in October, which was won by former national captain Aminul Islam Bulbul.

The country’s first Test centurion, who captained Bangladesh in their first World Cup appearance in 1999, had taken over as temporary BCB president in March 2025 and was then elected unopposed for a four-year term in October.

But Ehsan said a letter had been sent to the International Cricket Council “stating that a decision has been made to dissolve the BCB committee”.

An 11-member ad hoc committee led by Tamim, who at 39 becomes the youngest head of Bangladesh cricket, is required to hold elections within three months, the sports council official said.

Tamim scored more than 15,000 runs for Bangladesh in a career spanning 15 years and remains the only Bangladeshi to score hundreds in all formats of international cricket. He played his last international in September 2023 in the build-up to that year’s Cricket World Cup.

The decision to dissolve the board comes before a “goodwill visit” to India by Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman to rebuild frosty relations.

Cricket, a sport beloved by both nations, added to the neighbours’ bitter divisions after Bangladesh refused to take part in the World Cup in India in February, citing security concerns.

Dhaka made that decision after Bangladesh fast bowler Mustafizur Rahman was told to leave his Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise, the Kolkata Knight Riders, sparked by online outrage from right-wing Indian Hindus.

They had invoked alleged attacks on a Hindu community in Muslim-majority Bangladesh. Dhaka said the scale of the violence was exaggerated.

Bulbul was at the forefront of Bangladesh’s decision not to play, saying at the time that “the dignity and security” of the country’s cricketers was the board’s priority.

Bangladesh will host New Zealand in a tour featuring three one-day internationals, three ‌T20s ‌and two Tests starting on April 17.