Hathurusingha suspended, Phil Simmons new coach

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has suspended national cricket team head coach Chandika Hathurusingha.

BCB president Faruque Ahmed confirmed this in a press conference on Monday.

He said former West Indies cricketer Phil Simmons will take over as the head coach of the national team till the ICC Champions Trophy.

Hathurusingha had a two-year contract till the Champions Trophy to be held in February next year. But the board has decided to terminate the contract before that. Besides, the coach has been served a show cause notice.

Addressing the press conference in Mirpur today, Tuesday, BCB president Faruque Ahmed said, “We served him a show cause notice as per the rule before suspending him. We have suspended him for 48 hours initially. We will sack him afterwards. Phil Simmons will be the coach of the national team till the Champions Trophy.”

The BCB president said Hathurusingha is being suspended mainly for breaching the code of conduct.

The two-match Test series against South Africa starts next week. Hathurusingha returned to Dhaka with the team following the India tour. However, he will no longer be able to stay with the team.

It was Hathurusingha’s second stint as the head coach of the Bangladesh national cricket team. He served as the head coach of Bangladesh from May 2014 to October 2017 during his first stint. He sent his resignation through an email in the middle of Bangladesh’s tour to South Africa. He joined as the head of Sri Lanka within a month of that.

Faruque Ahmed had given indication about removing Hathurusingha after taking over as the BCB president.

Bangladesh played 10 Tests, 35 ODIs and 35 T-20Is under Hathurusingha in his second stint with the national team. Bangladesh won five of these Test matches. However, the team’s performance in the ODI format was quite frustrating. Bangladesh lost 13 of the 35 ODIs under Hathurusingha during his second stint and won 19 of the 35 T20Is during that time.