Tamim is supporting 91 Athletes
Tamim has worked relentlessly to support the poor during this moment of turmoil and reaching out to the 91 athletes is his gesture of kindness. Bangladesh has been in an informal lockdown since March 26, with growing cases of the Coronavirus pandemic. The lockdown has placed many people suffering in hunger and loss of income, even sportsmen. Bangladesh ODI Captain Tamim Iqbal has come forward to support 91 suffering sportsmen, both former and present, in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak. After making the decision, Tamim contacted his buddies in the sports arena to gather the names and numbers of the athletes who are suffering. Not just cricket but the list has also contained swimming, basketball, running, football, wushu, kabaddi, gymnastics and others.
Tamim’s old-age cricket buddy and now mentor, Mohammad Humayun Kabir, was one of the coordinators of the project. According to Humayun, they have completed offering financial assistance to sportsmen and women and have expressed satisfaction with the answer they have got. They have been working to support players in all sports to name just a handful like baseball, basketball, diving and soccer. There are several athletes who cannot call for help despite their social status but are living desperation at the same time. Tamim Bhai wanted to find out about the families and supported them with financial assistance. The money was sent by mobile financial systems, which took them nearly five days to complete the action.
The South Asian Games gold medalist swimmer Mahfuza Khatun also took part in the events, gathering the names for Tamim. He mentioned that Tamim bhai tried to keep this secret, but he feels that stuff like this should come to light. He has never talked to Tamim Bhai while working on this and one of his cricket friends told him about this and that Tamim Bhai wants to support other sports teams. Mahfuza is a founder of the Bangladesh Athletes Commission and thus gathering the numbers of those in need has never been a concern to her. He also added that he has been a member of athletics since 2003, but he has never seen anyone come and support competitors from so many different fields.
There have been numerous cases where athletes after obtaining “gifts” from Tamim, have been very emotional. Like his other actions, Tamim always decided to keep this campaign in secrecy. He refuses to make any comment on this and refrains from disclosing the identities of those who have received the assistance. Even as it happens, a number of them came out and happily declared that they have received those support. Swimmer Ani Khatun who has no father and living with two younger brothers has expressed his appreciation in receiving support from Tamin as well as Bangladesh Games gold-medalist in wushu, Razia Sultana.
Tamim was one of the main initiators who donated half of his monthly salary to support victims who suffered from the ourbreak. He even came out and supported young sprinter Samiul Islam as he struggled to make the ends meet for his kin. Tamim had heard about Samiul via a media story and had given assistance so that Samiul’s family could live for three months. Tamim then donated to Dhaka’s Mohammadpur resident Nafisa Anjum Khan, who is considered to be among the many to step forward and support the poor citizens in Bangladesh before Tuesday afternoon registered 6,462 Covid-19 cases in the world and 155 fatality cases in Bangladesh.
