No sooner had Stuart Law departed yesterday, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) intensified its search for the new head coach. Law’s replacement could be named as early as this month with the major candidates being asked to come to the BCB headquarters and give their interviews.
In previous times the BCB had to look for a proper candidate and convince him to take up the job. The change may have come up after the large amount of interest shown
by the various coaches so far, which is linked to the team’s success in the Asia Cup last March.
The board has been taking its time to find a coach, and despite May 15 being the deadline for the applicants, they have already begun communicating with some of the
candidates.
It has been reported that Englishman Mick Newell, the Nottinghamshire director of cricket, is in the running while Dermot Reeve and Dean Jones have also let their
Tigers aspirations be known. It was learned that the BCB is mostly targeting coaches from Australia, South Africa, England and New Zealand.
When asked what the BCB will look for in the new coach, media committee chairman Jalal Yunus said, “We look at his coaching profile, bigger it is the better. We will
see how successful he is, at county or state level.”
“We will also see if he is a good motivator and the bonus would be if he has coached at international level. We will try to appoint a head coach as early as possible
though we don’t have any activities in the next few months. We have already begun the process,” he said.
Jalal, who is part of a group of directors who looks for the coach (including the acting CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury), said that it is a good sign that coaches are now
keen on taking up the Bangladesh job rather than what happened at previous times.
“I think it [coaches’ interest] has made our job easier, and it is definitely a good sign. It is definitely after the consistent performance at the Asia Cup that
everything has changed,” he said.
“When we were looking for a coach last year, we didn’t have much choice. We went for Stuart Law then, but this time we have some very good coaches in our radar,” added
Jalal, who also said that they are ready to stretch the budget to land their choice of coach.
At a time when Bangladesh are looking for a coach, the revered John Wright has decided to step down as the New Zealand coach in August after differences with John
Buchanan, the NZC director of cricket.
A possible link-up has not been shot down by the BCB. “If he shows interest, we would be happy to hear from him.”
-With The Daily Star input
