Bangladesh Cricket Board has made allout efforts to change the mind of former national skipper Khaled Mahmud, who was frustrated at having no specific duties to do and resigned from the post of national team assistant coach earlier this month.
Newly-appointed chief executive officer Manzur Ahmed spared some time to speak to Mahmud amid his busy schedule while cricket operations chief Enayet Hossain Seraj also held a meeting with the former all-rounder.
‘First of all, I have to respect his decision. I will have another meeting with him tomorrow [Tuesday] and I am confident of a positive outcome,’ said the CEO, who took charge only this month.
‘I am hopeful that the current crisis in the national team will be resolved soon and I expect a positive outcome from my meeting with the assistant coach,’ Manzur said.
Mahmud, who was adamant about not reconsidering his decision and is almost certain to take over as coach of the Dhaka Premier League outfit Abahani, has softened his stance and took two days to make up his mind.
Mahmud, in his post-resignation interviews, raised an allegation of racial discrimination against the BCB while paying the local and foreign coaches and the new CEO promised to look into the matter.
Manzur, who already made an impression by introducing a dress code for the BCB executives and fixing office hour for them from 9:00am to 5:00pm, emphasised on having a long-term programme to improve the skill of the home grown coaches.
‘We need to make a long-term plan for the local coaches if we are to use them at the international level,’ Manzur said.
Meanwhile, Jamie Siddons, the head coach at whom many pointed their finger for the entire saga, also hailed Mahmud as a fantastic assistant and insisted he would love to have him in his set-up.
‘He hasn’t spoken to me and I just don’t know what his problem is with me,’ Siddons said.
‘He is the assistant coach and his job is to assist me and he does that fabulously, he helps me in making programmes, he is a good interpreter and he helps me by giving me logistical support,’ Siddons said
‘I hope he changes his mind as we need him,’ he added
‘He is a new coach, needs to go slow, last year was his first year in international level and he just got his Level Three coaching degree, so he needs to learn as much as he can from these coaches as it is a great opportunity for him,’ Siddons said referring to his two British assistants, Ian Pont and Julien Fountain.
‘If he is not available then I need someone who can speak Bangla,’ he said.
