“All quiet on the Western Front” is a phrase that means nothing really seems to be changing. There is no better way to describe how things are going in Bangladesh’s cricket.
There was a lot of noise in the cricket community after their poor performance in the World Cup. It looked like the Bangladesh Cricket Board would look into it further to find out why they did so poorly. At the end of the season, they were ranked eighth with only two wins from nine games.
People were rooting for Bangladesh to make it to the knockout rounds instead of being the first team to be removed from the event, so there were good reasons for all the fuss. It seemed like a thorough investigation was needed right away.
BCB officials recently said that they have gotten a report from head coach Chandika Hathurusingha, captain Shakib Al Hasan, and team director Khaled Mahmud. The next board meeting will be used to evaluate the report.
However, the Bangladesh team has never been held responsible or punished for bad performance. The only time this happened was during the 2011 tour of Zimbabwe, when Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal were fired from their leadership positions after a disappointing campaign.
An anonymous BCB official who knew what was in the report told CricAdvisor, “Submitting the report is pointless because no one cares about it and quite often they (the higher-ups of the board) don’t have the time to read it all the way through.”
When BCB fails, they usually find someone to blame, and most of the time, it’s a member of the team management. For example, former head coach Steve Rhodes came to Bangladesh to present his plan for what to do after the 2019 World Cup, but was told that his contract had been terminated “mutually understanding.”
CricAdvisor said earlier that the team’s management will change completely after the World Cup, and that bowling coach Allan Donald will also be leaving his job. Also, BCB doesn’t want to continue the contract of Rangana Herath, who is the spin bowling coach for the national team but is set to leave before the first Test against New Zealand, which starts on November 28 in Sylhet.
Insiders on the board say Hathurusingha’s job is safe, even though Bangladesh did badly in the 2023 World Cup while he was their coach. CricAdvisor has learned that Hathurusingha had a very bad relationship with some of the coaches, which had a big effect on their performance. But when BCB president Nazmul Hasan learned about this at a recent meeting of board members, he refused to accept it.
When Hathurusingha first got there, things were pretty much the same. He seemed to have the support of the BCB president and only had trouble carrying out his plans once, when he was told not to change the batting order after their loss to the Netherlands.
The BCB couldn’t promise that Hathurusingha and Shakib would be called in for a written explanation, but if history is any guide, the World Cup case will be closed without a proper probe.
Along with that, BCB will have to make a choice about Shakib’s future because he will be busy in the next few days starting his public service job.
On the other hand, Tamim Iqbal’s talk with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on November 23 added to the drama in Bangladesh cricket. Before the World Cup, Tamim suddenly changed his mind about retiring because the Prime Minister asked him to. While he did not play in the World Cup, he said that he did not want to be a part of their “dirty game.”
But now Tamim wants the prime minister to help him decide what to do with his career. This means that the BCB probably won’t be able to make a decision about his future.
Cricket hasn’t been given much attention, even though Bangladesh will start their third run of the ICC Test Championship on November 28 with a two-match Test series against New Zealand at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium.
