Hathuru’s fate to be decided in BCB meeting
No sooner the World Cup ends, Bangladesh are set to play another series. The two-match Test series against New Zealand will start on 28 November at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium. But, the Bangladesh Cricket Control Board (BCB) has yet to make any official observations about the World Cup failure. The board is yet to discuss with coach, captain or the team management.
As a matter of fact, BCB is pending every discussion for the forthcoming board meeting. The directorial board of BCB will have a meeting in the last week of this month or the first week of December and the main agenda there will be the disappointing performance of the Bangladesh team.
The tune of that meeting is already felt. It is known, most of the BCB directors are ready to take on the coach Chandika Hathurusingha. They are mainly blaming the coach for selecting the team, frequent changes of batting order and the other causes that made the World Cup a big failure.
They may even demand his immediate removal. But the coach is contracted with the BCB till February 2025 and it will not be easy to remove him. The board has to give him a big compensation if the coach is sacked before the contract ends. But the BCB directors are not yet clear about the mindset of BCB boss Nazmul Hasan regarding the matter.
After the World Cup, Hathurusingha stayed with the team for a few days in Dhaka. After that, he went to Australia and returned on Wednesday ahead of the New Zealand series. Captain Shakib al Hasan returned from the World Cup earlier due to a finger injury. He also left Dhaka for a few days to stay with his family in the United States. He returned to Dhaka on Tuesday morning. The BCB president has yet to officially speak to either of them about the World Cup-failure, which is surprising!
Surprising in the sense that whatever is the result, normally the board president discusses with the coach-captain even after a bilateral series.
And this is the World Cup! However, one of the major reasons why there is no discussion on the World Cup in the board so far is the preoccupation of Kishoreganj-6 constituency member of parliament Nazmul Hasan about the national elections. However, the attitude of other directors towards the coach should not be unknown to him. It is assumed that the BCB president will decide what to do in this regard with the formal opinion of everyone in the meeting of the board of directors.
A BCB official on the condition of anonymity said, 'There is a lot of controversy about the performance of our players in the World Cup, the performance of the coaching staff members, changing the batting order repeatedly. We will talk about why this happened in the board meeting.''
Regarding the discussion with the coach, he said, 'Surely the coach will also give a report. Maybe we will discuss it with him only after seeing that.
Meanwhile, some members of the New Zealand team came to Dhaka last night to play the two-Test series. The rest are due to arrive this morning due to flight delays. Both Bangladesh and New Zealand teams will leave for Sylhet on Wednesday. The second and last Test of the series will start from 6 December at the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium of Mirpur.
Shakib is not playing in this series due to finger injury. Test team vice-captain Litton Das has also taken leave from the series. Najmul Hossain will lead the team instead of them. Shakib is also busy with elections. He has collected nomination forms for three constituencies to participate in the forthcoming parliamentary elections. He came to Dhaka on Tuesday morning and went to the Awami League office in the afternoon and submitted the nomination form for all the three constituencies.