Bangladesh coach Shane Jurgensen has set his eyes on making steady progress in the rankings of all formats during the next two years when he will be at the helm of the Tigers.
Jurgensen was given a two-year extension by the Bangladesh Cricket Board on Wednesday providing him with the opportunity to guide the team in the next ICC World Cup in 2015.
BCB’s decision to extend his tenure for such a long period came as a surprise given the recent trends when Bangladesh offered high-profile coaches a short-time role.
Since the departure of Dave Whatmore after a successful World Cup campaign in 2007, no coaches of the senior side enjoyed so much confidence though Bangladesh has had some high-profile appointments over the past seven years.
Jurgensen joined as an assistant to Stuart Law, who came here on a two-year contract but could not last even a year before he resigned in April 2012.
Law’s successor Richard Pybus was never considered as a longtime prospect for Bangladesh mostly because of his track record as an international coach.
When Pybus left even without signing a contract, the BCB had very few options. Jurgensen stepped in as an interim coach but he was supposed to play the role of Shane Williamson, who was in charge of the Tigers for a brief period after Whatmore had left.
However, Jurgensen with his strong work ethics and understanding of Bangladesh’s dressing-room culture took very little time to establish himself in the role by bringing some instant success which helped the BCB stop its mad search for a permanent coach.
The BCB has got so much confidence in him that they decided to give him an extension for six months before his current tenure expires in December.
It allowed him to set a long-term goal, which Jurgensen said, is to steadily climbing up the ladder of ranking.
‘My goal is to improve our overall ranking in all the three formats,’ Jurgensen said.
‘I am confident that we can achieve that in the next two years. We have got some very talented players and they are working well as a unit,’ said Jurgensen, who went on a week-long vacation on Thursday.
‘The idea is to develop an atmosphere where each player can complement each other,’ he said,
‘Every individual should be ready to come forward to take up the responsibility and my job is to instill that confidence into them so that we develop as a whole team.’
Jurgensen is looking forward to the forthcoming home series against New Zealand to make a start to achieve the goal of narrowing the gap in the ranking with the other teams of the world.
‘It’s a very big challenge and we need to continue with a good start in the Test matches,’ he said.
‘I am really looking forward to all the formats, but in terms of ranking in ODIs we are very close and would like to improve on that.
‘It will certainly define our improvement and I am thoroughly looking forward to it,’ Jurgensen said.
Jurgensen hopes to get skipper Mushfiqur Rahim in his in accomplishing his goal, though unlike him, the wicket-keeper batsman was given short extension, precisely for the New Zealand series only.
Jurgensen still believe Mushfiq is right person to lead the Tigers, even after his off the field drama in Zimbabwe, which the coach said only increased the bonding in the side.
Mushfiq resigned as captain after Bangladesh lost the one-day series before admitting the decision as mistake.
‘I think Mushfiq is a fantastic captain and it great to work with and a very good leader on and off the field,’ he said.
‘I think what happened during that series that was a tough time for all of us with some back to back series and a lot of issues on and off the field with injuries and things like that.
‘Moving on from that he is certainly is the right person for the job. There was a lot of positive that came out of what happened in Zimbabwe.
‘I think as a playing group we came a lot closer after that incident. We stuck together as a team and the senior players stepped up to support Mushy,’ he said.
-With New Age input
