While Bangladesh Cricket Board is thinking to ring changes in the entire national team set-up, fielding coach Julien Fountain is one exception, not to be ruled out completely.
The BCB is still negotiating with Fountain despite them stating they will place fresh advertisement for coaches in the newspapers and on the website.
After an executive meeting last week the BCB in a media release informed that it will only retain the services of trainer Grant Luden and review the contract of physio Michael Henry.
The media release had not mentioned about the ongoing negotiation with Fountain which came as a big surprise for the Englishman.
‘I had several meetings with top board officials and the last person who spoke to me was its president AHM Mustafa Kamal. He expressed his desire for me to continue coaching the Bangladesh cricket team,’ Fountain told New Age on Sunday.
The BCB media release, issued a day before the Bangladesh-Australia third one-day international, came as a big shock for Fountain, who was given a farewell by the players in the dressing room.
‘I was very surprised to read in the media that my contract will not be renewed. To be honest, I was surprised to receive a small farewell from the players and staff in the dressing room after the last match against Australia,’ said Fountain.
Fountain was satisfied with the progress Bangladesh made as a fielding unit under his tutelage despite skipper Sakib al Hasan complaining several times that it let them down against Australia.
Bangladesh dropped a few vital catches in the series which proved to be very embarrassing for them. In the second one-dayer they dropped Shane Watson twice and he went on to create a new world record by hitting 15 sixes on his way to an unbeaten 185 off 96 balls.
‘I do not agree that our fielding standard has deteriorated,’ said Fountain. ‘True that we dropped some catches but that does not mean our fielding has dipped substantially. We were pretty ordinary in patches but overall it was not that disappointing to be honest,’ said Fountain.
After a quick look into his database, where Fountain preserved all statistics, the coach claimed Bangladesh’s fielding standard was as good as any other major sides.
‘Statistically we are comparable to major Test-playing nations. On our day we are even better than many other sides as far as fielding is concerned,’ said Fountain.
Courtesy of New Age
