After winning the final, David Malan was interviewed by Jimmy Neesham. This was the only instance of the New Zealand all-rounder’s involvement in this year’s BPL. Fortune Barishal had flown him in from South Africa just for the final. Was it only for an interview? Don’t get me wrong, Neesham hasn’t left cricket to become a full-time presenter yet.
Before heading to Bangladesh, Neesham had played for Pretoria Capitals in the SA T20, facing MI Cape Town. He took 3 wickets with the ball and scored 32 runs off 24 balls.
Despite this, Neesham didn’t make it into the playing XI for the BPL final. After the match, he joked with Malan about it: “Your team is pretty good. They could win the final with 10 players!” As much as they laughed, it was clear that sitting on the bench after flying in from South Africa wasn’t exactly enjoyable for Neesham.
However, Barishal’s captain, Tamim Iqbal, had informed Neesham the night before that he wouldn’t be in the XI. So why bring him all the way here? Naturally, many were curious, and the question even came up at Tamim’s press conference. “We have a foreign squad, and one of them is a pacer. If any batter or all-rounder had picked up an injury during training or warm-ups, there was no one to replace them.”
Tamim had already explained to Barishal’s owner, Mizanur Rahman, why Neesham was being flown in just to sit on the bench. But Tamim had no objections now, especially since he had led the team to their second BPL title by defeating Chittagong Kings by 3 wickets.
At the end, Tamim expressed his sympathy for Neesham: “Neesham deserves to play in any team, especially in the BPL. But I felt that the players who had played 7-8 matches and understood the wickets and opposition were the right choice. We had played just three games against Chittagong in a short period, and I was clear in my mind that I wasn’t going to change the winning combination.”
