Bangladesh Cricket Board president Nazmul Hasan, on Monday (November 20), hinted that they had given up hopes of Chandika Hathurusingha continuing as the head coach and instead were looking at other options to replace him.
Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) are on the verge of signing former Test cricketer Hathurusingha as the head coach of the set-up, with the 49-year-old expected to arrive in Colombo next week to meet officials.
The former Sri Lanka opener is set to sign the contract to complete the official formalities and take over the responsibility of coaching Sri Lanka after the ongoing tour of India.
In October, Hathurusingha forwarded his resignation to the BCB to step down as the coach of Bangladesh but the board had tried to convince the former Sri Lanka cricketer.
Nazmul, though, gave enough hints that BCB were searching for a suitable candidate, and if in case they don’t find a good enough replacement for Hathurusingha, Khaled Mahmud could take over the mantle of coaching the side for the time being.
“I personally feel that if someone is not interested to work, there is no use in keeping him and we did not walk on that line either,” Nazmul told reporters at Mirpur. “We are not waiting for Hathurusingha but we are waiting for his report that he was supposed to give within two or three weeks,” he added.
“We must know why he resigned, whether it was due to us or for some personal reasons and whether we have anything to do [with it] or not. It is not that any big change will happen after knowing the reason but we must know it,” he noted.
“If we don’t get a foreign head coach before Sri Lanka series, then we will have a local coach and we have Sujon [Khaled Mahmud as back-up],” he said.
Mahmud, who worked closely with Hathurusingha, had already expressed his intention of taking charge of the national set-up. Mahmud is the current head coach of Dhaka Dynamites in the ongoing Bangladesh Premier League.
Sri Lanka are due to arrive in Bangladesh to play two Tests, two Twenty20 Internationals and a tri-nation One-Day International series also involving Zimbabwe.
Nazmul added that he doesn’t believe Hathurusingha had ‘pre-planned’ his resignation. “I don’t think it was pre planned as he was also planning for the next World Cup after the first Test against South Africa. But he submitted the resignation letter after the second Test, so something must have happened,” he observed.
“I cannot say anything until getting that report regarding his resignation but I am convinced that he took the decision during the second Test,” Nazmul said when he was asked whether the former Sri Lanka opener had any issues with Bangladesh’s senior cricketers.
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