The Bangladesh Cricket Board on Monday appointed former Sri Lankan Test cricketer and current assistant coach of New South Wales Chandika Hathurusinghe as the next head coach of the national team ending all speculations. The announcement came at an impromptu press conference arranged at BCB president Nazmul Hasan’s business office Beximco Limited instead of Bangladesh’s home of cricket at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium.
Before the official announcement was made it became obvious that Hathurusinghe will take over the charge of the Tigers after his Big Bash employer Sydney Thunders confirmed his departure for the Bangladesh job.
Hathurusinghe’s appointment, initially for a two-year period, will be effective from July 1, though the BCB said it was expecting him to take over on June 10 before Bangladesh face India in a three-match one-day international series.
‘We had one or two other alternatives apart from Hathurusinghe,’ said BCB president Nazmul. ‘But we felt that he is the most suitable person for us for two reasons. First of all he is familiar with the sub-continental wickets as he is a Sri Lankan and also he spent a significant amount of time in Australia which we had taken into consideration.
‘We believe that World Cup 2015 is one of our major events and his knowledge will be helpful for us,’ Nazmul said of Hathurusinghe, who appeared in 26 Tests and 35 ODIs for the Sri Lanka.
The 45-year-old, a Cricket Australia and ECB Level 3 qualified coach with substantial international and first-class coaching experience, began his cricket coaching career in 2005 as the coach of the United Arab Emirates.
Between 2006 and 2010 he was a batting-cum-shadow coach of the Sri Lanka national team for a period of 18 months and prior to that he served as the head coach of the Sri Lanka A Team for three years.
Before accepting the Bangladesh offer, Hathurusinghe was working as the coach for Sydney Thunder in the Big Bash League and an assistant coach for New South Wales ‘Blues’.
He was also the assistant coach of Australia ‘A’ and an interim head coach of NSW ‘Blues’, consultant coach of the Sydney Sixes for the Champions League T20 and consultant coach for Canada in the 2011 World Cup.
Hathurusinghe could be joined by his former team-mate Chaminda Vaas, who is being considered as bowling coach, said the BCB president.
‘We are also looking for specialist coaches for fast bowling, spin bowling, fielding and batting departments,’ he said.
‘As of bowling coach, we are talking with Vaas along with a few others.’
The BCB president, however, said there is little chance the other coaches would join before the India series.
‘We are trying, but I don’t think we will get everyone before the India series,’ said Nazmul.
‘We are communicating with them, because not all of them are full-time coaches, so we are trying to work out a time slot. We haven’t gone too far in this regard, so we don’t want to talk much about it.’
The Board also appointed Mario Villavarayen as the Tigers’ next strength & conditioning coach as the post fell vacant after Australian David Dywer resigned last month.
Villavarayen, 40, has been serving as Sri Lanka Cricket’s strength and conditioning coach since 2011.
-With New Age input
