Tamim hailed in sports fraternity for his generosity

|| CF Correspondent ||

Players across the sports fraternity of the country hailed Tamim Iqbal for coming forward and helping then during the tie  

Bangladesh team ODI skipper Tamim Iqbal stepped forward with his noble work once again by lending his hand to help families of 91 struggling athletes of the country.

Tamim came forward to the support of cyclists, swimmers, gymnasts, footballers, cricketers, kabaddi, wushu, and hockey players, as well as coaches by provided with some decent amount through bKash by the veteran left-handed opener.

Last week, Iqbal contacted several former athletes, cricketers and journalists to track down disadvantaged sportspersons across the country. Earlier, Tamim has come forward to help Samiul the fastest teenage athlete, gave his support to the underprivileged children, middle-class families and was seen helping in collaborating with Nazmul Hossain Apu, raised funds with cricketers and donated to the welfare of the needy people of the country.

Before making this move Tamim made contribution with Dhaka’s Mohammadpur resident Nafisa Anjum Khan, who is known to be among the many to come forward and help of the struggling people in the society.

Nafisa rushes with a CNG driven three-wheeler stacked with daily essentials called “gifts” who contacts her over phone.

But Tamim thought it was not enough to just to a part in the contribution of others as he prepared to help on his own. The opener started looking to find the names related to sports arena who needed financial assistance. Including current and former players, Tamim collected a total of 91 names from all across the country. To find the names, SA Games gold medalist Mahfuza Khatun, National Team striker Tawhidul Alam Shobuj,cricketer Mizanur Rahman, coach Humayen Kabir Shain and many other people helped him.

Though Tamim’s contribution came under light, Mahfuza said that Tamim wanted to keep the acts in secret.

“Tamim bhai wanted to do it in secret but this sort of work should come forward so that other can get inspired. I didn’t talk to Tamim bhai about it but one of cricketer friend informed me about it,” told Mahfuza.

Mahfuza who has been working as a member of Bangladesh Athletics committee for quite some time now, she has a long experience of working on to help the deprived athletes of the country, which also helped her to gather the names.

“I have been playing since 2003. But I have never seen anyone from major sport to come forward to help the others” said Mahfuza.

Tawhidul Alam Shobuj, Bashundhara Kings’ striker who came to know about it from coach Humayen Kabir, said, “I have never seen it before, a player is helping the players of other form of sports. An top of that, he wants to keep his name secret. You need to have a big heart to do that”.

Another hockey player who was also aided by Tamim, confessed and thanked Tamim for such contribution.

“My (financial) condition was so bad that, I couldn’t even afford to buy goods from Iftar and Sehri. I will never forget such help from him (Tamim)” the hockey player said anonymously.

Annie Khatun, the gold medalists of last national age-based swim competition also described how Tamim’s contribution helped her family in such tough situation-who is also the only earning source of her family.

“My father passed away. I have two young brothers unemployed. I used to earn money from this game. But the games are in halt so we were having a very tough time. Tamim bhai’s contribution has helped us a lot” said Annie.

Wushu played Razia Sultana, who won a gold medal in SA Games was also surprised to get financial aid from Tamim Iqbal during this lockdown period.