Chief selector Faruk Ahmed said on Monday that he welcomes the concept of including national coach Chandika Hathurusinghe in the selection panel as it will reduce the so-called gap between the coach and the selection committee members. BCB is mulling with the idea of including Hathurusinghe in the selection panel in the forthcoming days as well as increase the number of personnel in the selection panel to make it more effective.
Officials said that the distance between Faruk and Hathurusinghe over young leg-spinner Jubair Hossain in the recent past was taken into account before making a plan for the complete revamp of selection committee.
Hathurusinghe overtly and covertly expressed his displeasure regarding the episode which only suggested all is not well among them and it has the symptom of getting worse.
The rift between the two parties was evident when Shuvagata Hom, who was not in the initial 15-member squad, was preferred over Nasir Hossain to be picked in the final XI in the last two matches of ICC World Twenty20.
Faruk said that inclusion of Hathurusinghe in the selection panel can turn out to be a good way to bridge their gap and it will help the coach to be more involved and own the team and its plan.
‘We pick a player with a certain plan regarding him in our mind and if the coach is the member of the selection panel he is aware with our plan of action rather than accepting the squad as part of his job responsibility,’ Faruk told New Age.
‘In that case you cannot claim anything like this was not his team or he wanted someone in the squad but eventually failed to include him in the squad.
‘It will be a coordinated effort that will help to end all kinds of misunderstanding regarding the team selection as he needs to play his part before we select the final squad.’
Faruk also thought that the coach has already gathered fair amount of knowledge on many players to play his part as a selector and suggested that the inclusion of skipper in the panel will make it even better.
‘He is working here for the last two years and got a fair idea of the players at least,’ Faruk said.
‘It’s always good to have coach and at the same time it will be even better if the captain is also included in the selection panel as he is the one who guides the team both inside and outside the field.’
Faruk added that Hathurusinghe must keep an eye into domestic cricket rather than just concentrating on the national duty if he wants to give a qualitative output in the selection panel.
‘At the same time if the coach is included in the selection panel it will also enhance his responsibilities as far as grooming the cricketers in the pipeline is concerned.
‘So he needs to be more involved during our domestic cricket season and follow it with more attention as that is one of the major responsibilities of member of the selection panel.
‘His inclusion in the selection panel will also help him understand his role more precisely with the available resources and how to handle them to get the maximum service.’
Faruk is quite successful in his two stints with the national team as he earned a lot of success during his tenure.
Tigers were successful in ICC World Cup in West Indies during his first stint on 2007 while they reached their maiden ICC World Cup quarter-final in Australia-New Zealand 2015, during his second stint.
-With New Age input
