Experience at a price

It was a month and a half spent on the other side of the rope for Tamim Iqbal who even thought of getting his teammates to sign his substitute's bib rather than the jersey.
The Pune Warriors experience was a new one for the Tigers' opener who didn't get to play a single game out of sixteen during the fifth season of the Indian Premier League. He had waited for the previous four seasons for his shot at the money-spinning Twenty20 competition but the lack of opportunity meant that he spent more time running the drinks.
When asked how he used to react to being overlooked, Tamim said that even his teammates found it amusing.
"The guys even told me that you're not used to not playing, how do you feel in this situation? I didn't know what to say but the selfish thing to say would have been that they didn't let me play. I have always been a team-man, wherever I've played," he told the media upon his return to the country last night.
Tamim went into the IPL on the back of four consecutive half-centuries during the highly successful Asia Cup. The run of fifties was one of the reasons for the Pune management to pick the left-hander, but still they kept him waiting.
"It was very frustrating because I went there with very good form. I thought I would play from the start, but the team is the most important factor.
"So I thought everyday was an opportunity for me, despite not playing. The thing that I liked the most was that despite being from Bangladesh, I did speak during team meetings.
"These are very important because our team needs a lot of leadership qualities, so if we can speak to big players and in big team meetings, leadership qualities will rise. I'm sure Shakib has done it, and I did it," he said when asked about his frustration at not being able to play.
In a jovial mood at the BCB headquarters yesterday, Tamim said that there was an instant during the tail-end of the IPL season when he thought of taking everyone's autograph on his bib as he always had to wear it on top of his jersey as a substitute.
"[At the end of the season] everyone was getting each other's signatures on their jerseys. I said I should get everyone's signature on my bib, since I wore it most of the time," he quipped.
During a press conference on Friday, Pune Warriors owner Subrata Roy told reporters that he had called captain Sourav Ganguly to let Tamim play in the last few games.
"I was very close to playing a lot of the games, but I don't know whether he [Subrata] called anyone or not. There were many instances when I was asked to get ready but in the end I didn't play.
"I was being told, when six matches were left to play, that I'll get a game. When I shared my problem with them with two matches in hand, they told me to solve it first," he said.
He further added that if he had a disciplinary issue with the team management, it would have come out at the time. "IPL is a very big stage so if I had disciplinary issues with the team, it would have come in the papers. But nothing like this has happened, I have an excellent relationship with them; the owner asked me to meet him and I did from 9am in the morning. It is very disappointing where it comes from and why it is always me who is associated with such issues."