Chanidka Hathurusingha is not the first coach in international cricket who has returned to his old workplace for a second stint. Many others have done so before him. Some have even done it three-four times.
Still, Hathurusingha’s return as the coach of the Bangladesh cricket team seems a bit out of the ordinary due to the manner with which he left the post the first time around, a topic that doesn’t need any further discussion.
Much has been said since the return of the Sri Lankan coach was confirmed. But why is Hathurusingha being called back after the way he abandoned the post last time– a clear cut answer to this question was nowhere to be found.
The most appropriate person to answer this question is the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Nazmul Hassan. Bringing back Hathurusingha was more or less his unilateral decision. But what was the reason behind this decision? Here, it would be more appropriate to ask for ‘reasons’ instead of ‘reason’ as there are not one but three of them to be precise.
Hathurusingha is set to land in Dhaka on Monday night to begin his second innings as the Bangladesh coach. In an interview conducted over the telephone mere hours before his arrival, Nazmul Hassan specified three reasons why Hathurusingha is being brought back. In his own words, the reasons are the following–
Reason No 1
“The first reason is that we will get Hathuru for the entire time. None of the other good coaches would stay with us without interruptions. We would have to let them go for various franchise leagues. Now it’s not just the IPL, many are also involved with the ILT20 (a new league in the UAE). Many of our preferred candidates were also tied down in their current agreements till 2024. They can’t come before 2024. But we have a World Cup coming up (this year).”
Reason No 2
“Another big reason is that Hathurusingha already knows about us. He knows our boys. Whenever an overseas coach arrives, we get bombarded with questions like, ‘Why is this like this’, ‘Why is that like that’. With Hathuru, this problem won’t happen. He knows everything about us. Barring a couple or so new players, he also knows the cricketers really well. The two players he gave the most number of chances in his first term were Liton (Das) and Soumya (Sarkar). Liton is now already a permanent figure in the team. Soumya, however, is nowhere to be found. Other than them, he will see Shanto (Najmul Hossain), Towhid Hridoy and Zakir (Hasan) for the first time. The rest have been here since his first tenure.”
Reason No 3
“I have spoken with many of the players. Especially with the senior players. I sent them a list of coaches. Almost everyone recommended Hathurusingha. One or two players, however, said, ‘Pick whoever you feel is the right choice’. A while ago, when we were going through a really rough period, even Mashrafe (Bin Mortaza) told me, ‘Bring Hathuru back’, which surprised me a bit because I thought he has a tiff with Hathuru. Even Tamim said, ‘Bring Hathuru back’.”
Other than these three reasons, Nazmul Hassan also spoke about Hathurusingha’s work style as coach, what would be his perimeters as coach this time and what his role will be in team selection. The BCB president also openly answered questions over his intrusion in the team selection process.
*The complete interview will be published in the print and online edition of Prothom Alo on Tuesday.