Why Bangladesh are still without a head coach?

Bangladesh still could not appoint a head coach……

Former South African cricketer and coach Gary Kirsten set foot in Dhaka with a lot of expectations. People started to weave the expectations, Gary would help the Tigers to recruit a head coach. There existed the confusion about his role: whether he would act as a consultant or director of coaching, nothing could be understood. In the end, one could realise, Kirsten was here for a shorter period as an independent auditor of the senior team, an idea with which not only Bangladesh cricket, but many prominent teams in world cricket are not accustomed to.

It’s also pretty funny to see that to appoint a head coach, Bangladesh were needed to seek the help of a consultant with handy payments – indeed, Bangladesh is becoming a land of each and every possible happenings in the funniest and bizarre manner. Bangladesh can’t even rely on their own people to do such jobs either because of corruption or lack of ability to cooperate in a professional way.  

Gary talked with the senior players of Bangladesh and one of the local coaches and at the end unleashed the idea of separate coaches for each format. A few ways later, Gary left Dhaka, leaving the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) without giving any suitable solutions. The situation remains as it is, since November 2017, the Tigers are still without a head coach.

I was pretty surprised with Gary’s idea of separate coaches for each format. Such sort of ideas suit teams like Australia, England, India or South Africa; but definitely not for Bangladesh where there is a lack of enough quality players on the bench. Moreover, where Bangladesh could not handle one renowned coach properly, how would they be able to manage three head coaches. Bangladesh don’t have a professional environment to work, do they?

Of course, a professional environment doesn’t exist in Bangladesh. The greatest example, had been the Chandika Hathurusingha saga, where he was extremely insulted repeatedly by the media and fans despite being the main man behind the outstanding turnaround of Bangladesh cricket in the last two and half years, Chandika was a victim of ignorance and unbearable insult by a section of Bangladesh media, who always were up to tarnish is image an degrade his hard work via spreading unnecessary propaganda in the mainstream and social media.

In fact, there is a school of thought, such activities were indirectly supported by some of the prominent names in national team, though there are no proofs about this.  

If a cricketing nation like Zimbabwe can appoint someone like Lalchand Rajput, then why Bangladesh, despite being one of the most exciting teams in world cricket at present, is failing time and again to appoint a head coach still now remains a moot question. 

The so called representatives and critics of Bangladesh cricket are coming up with various reasons behind the failure in appointing a head coach such as the emergence of franchise cricket leagues, cost effectiveness, etc. but one thing they cannot ignore and which is, none of the coaches to whom BCB has approached so far, are not interested to come to Bangladesh.

And why is that?

In my opinion, the toxic environment created by a section of people from Bangladesh media and their sponsors might one of the most important reasons behind this lack of cooperation from the prominent names.

Bangladesh, perhaps, remains the only cricketing nation in the world where a group of sports journalists is able to access freely without bothering enough discipline and thus pollute the environment by merging with our cricketers. Of course, they would not be able to do such without the help from inside the dressing room and BCB office and for which, it was always very important to separate cricket and the media from each other – oiling their respective machines should have been more important rather than crossing the line too far.

But in Bangladesh, those people just cross the line again and again and no professional coach would love to work in that environment where the seeds of hatred are sown from outside the dressing room to script a mess.

So, I think, if BCB wishes to have a competent head coach, they must fix their own house at first hand.

It’s the high time to get rid of the toxic group of people from Bangladesh cricket.   

Note: This article has been published at Cricketsoccer on 29/05/2018 Why Bangladesh are still without a head coach?

Thank You
Faisal Caesar