Bangladesh Cricket Board is all set to make one last attempt to keep the national head coach Chandika Hathurusingha once he joins the team in the coming week.
The BCB confirmed earlier this week that Hathurusingha sent a letter in October expressing his wish to resign, though he did not give any specific reason.
The BCB is yet to accept his resignation but there are several speculations about his successor if he is not willing to continue in his role with the team.
BCB president Nazmul Hasan had sat with the technical committee on Saturday to discuss several issues that includes their possible plan of action on Hathurusingha.
The resignation of Hathurusingha had created quite a stir and BCB claimed that they were stunned by the sudden decision of the former Sri Lankan international.
Khaled Mahmud, who had been working closely with Hathurusingha after completing his stint as assistant coach with Jamie Siddons and Dav Whatmore, had already expressed his intention of taking charge of national team.
However, the former Bangladesh captain, who also is running for the post of board director for the second successive term, told Cricbuzz on Tuesday that they won’t leave any stone unturned to change the mind of Hathurusingha, considering his success.
“I am not sure when he is arriving but surely we will sit with him to know the actual reason behind this sudden resignation and try to find a solution so that he stays back,” said Mahmud.
“No one can deny his success graph so we need to take our steps considering everything before making a final decision,” he said. “If he is reluctant then there is no use, but we must not shun away from making one last attempt.”
According to BCB insiders, Bangladesh cricket’s governing body will try to keep him until 2019 World Cup, but if that fails, they will propose him to stay till the home series against Sri Lanka, scheduled next January.
Sri Lanka is due to arrive in Bangladesh to play two Tests, two Twenty20 Internationals and a tri-nation ODI series involving Zimbabwe.
Chief selector Minhajul Abedin said that Hathurusingha had already drafted a training schedule, beginning from December 18 for Bangladesh, ahead of the series against Sri Lanka.
“Unless we sit with him, it is impossible to know what’s on his mind. I stayed with him throughout the South Africa tour but he never gave any kind of impression that would suggest something like this,” he added.
According to media reports Hathurusingha is all set to take up the responsibility of Sri Lanka team as his next assignment. Hathurusingha, who used to be taking all the calls and had been receiving all out backing of BCB high-ups as far national team activity was concerned after delivering success, was hit hard in the recent past by the change of behaviour by his employers.
Apart from his growing distance with the senior cricketers, he also had to take most of the blame for Bangladesh’s failures in South Africa, where they failed to register a single win across format.
On top of it, critics blamed his authoritarian behaviour and held it responsible for the sudden resignation of Mashrafe bin Mortaza from Twenty20 internationals earlier this year.
His soft corner for some of his blue-eyed boys, despite repeated failures and on equal measures his disinterested approach to some of the seasoned players did not take long to grab attention.
Things turned from bad to ugly, and during the Test series against South Africa, skipper Mushfiqur Rahim publicly criticized the role of the team management for not allowing him to decide fielding positions.
Senior cricketers were also taken aback to see Hathurusingha carefully distancing himself from the media to avoid criticism, instead of backing his skipper when Mushfiqur invited criticisms for failing to read the wicket and making a blunder after winning the toss.
Despite all of this, BCB high-ups feel that strict regime followed by Hathurusingha had also helped the team and also gave a message to every cricketer that no one is bigger than the team.
