Former Bangladesh one-day cricket captain Tamim Iqbal was taken to hospital on Monday after suffering a heart attack on the field during a domestic match.
Tamim, 36, was leading Mohammedan Sporting Club in a 50-over game in the Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League.
He participated in the toss but later complained of chest pain and after initial treatment on the field he was transported to a nearby hospital.
“He suffered a heart attack. What I know so far is that his heart started to function better,” Debashis Chowdhury, a medical officer of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), told AFP.
Tariqul Islam, a team official, reported that Tamim was being treated at a hospital in Savar on Dhaka's outskirts and urged the Bangladeshi public to pray for his quick recovery.
The BCB called off its scheduled board meeting for the day following Tamim's sudden illness, with several board members heading to the hospital to check on him.
An official medical bulletin was later offered by the doctors: “He returned to us in a critical condition. We can call it a heart attack, and we subsequently did an angiogram and angioplasty to remove the blockage.
“The medical procedure has gone smoothly. He is currently under observation. The swift co-ordination between the medical staff at BKSP [stadium] and the hospital ensured Tamim was treated quickly.”
Tamim represented Bangladesh in 391 matches across formats between 2007 and 2023.
He has more than 15,000 international runs under his belt and is the only Bangladeshi batsman to score centuries in all three international formats.
Tamim announced a shock retirement from international cricket in 2023, months ahead of the ODI World Cup in India.
He was in tears as he ended his 16-year international career, not giving any particular reasons for his sudden decision. He made the announcement in Chattogram a day after Bangladesh lost to Afghanistan in the first of three ODIs.
“Yesterday against Afghanistan was my last international game, I am retiring from international cricket effective right now,” Tamim told reporters at the time.
“There was no sudden reason behind this, I was thinking about it for quite some time,” he added. “I was talking about it with my family members for few days. I thought this was right time for me to decide.”
