Siddons set to stay on

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) is all set to extend the contract of Australian national team coach Jamie Siddons whose two-year tenure expires in November this year.
“We are looking forward to making a good team management with an eye on the next World Cup. And Jamie (Siddons) is very much a part of our plan. We want him to continue as the coach,” said BCB’s director and chairman of cricket operations committee Enayet Hossain Siraj after appearing in front of the parliamentary standing committee on Youth and Sports yesterday.
Bangladesh is a co-host of the 2011 ICC World Cup and Siraj said that they have no plans to change the national team coach ahead of the one-day championship despite questions being raised about the performance of the national team and its coaching staff in the ICC World Twenty20 in England where Bangladesh made exit from the first round after conceding an embarrassing defeat against lightweights Ireland.
Jamie, who worked as a specialist batting coach in the mighty Australia team, however failed to show any noticeable improvement in Bangladesh’s go-happy batting during his two-year tenure and there has been no exception in the ongoing series in West Indies.
The shock exit forced the board to change its captain while a couple of board officials lambasted Jamie for failing to inspire the team. The performance in England was also discussed in the parliament and the board was asked to report the reason behind the failure.
In that context, a BCB delegation led by president Lt Gen Sina Ibn Jamali met the parliamentary standing committee to appraise Bangladesh’s performance in the T20 championship.
“We met the committee to explain the reason behind the failure of the national team in the T20 World Cup. No doubt it was an upset. We also informed them about our future plan with the national team and other development programmes,” Siraj informed over telephone.
“We don’t think he is unsuccessful as a national coach rather he is doing well with the boys. And what we think is that it would be unwise to change him when the boys are started to acclimatise to him. And you all know he is a high profile coach,” said Siraj.
“We are however looking for a foreign fielding coach as well as we are also searching for a foreign coach for the A team and a physio,” he informed.
He said the standing committee reviewed the performance of national team in the ICC World Twenty20 and directed them to arrange rigorous practice for the cricketers and undertake an effective work plan for improving and upholding the image of country’s cricket.

Courtesy of The Daily Star