The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has sacked their head coach, Chandika Hathurusingha, due to the alleged assault of a player during last year’s ODI World Cup in India, as he has been suspended for two days in connection with the notice period after which it will be terminated immediately.
The sacking of Chandika Hathurusingha has come on the back of the incident in the 2023 event, during their game against New Zealand in Chennai, when the head coach slapped a player during one of the drinks break. The reports have claimed that the player had a delayed reaction to the drinks to which he was tasked. The eyewitness reported the incident to BCB in Kolkata a couple of weeks later, but it went unaddressed.
The former Sri Lankan coach was guilty of misconduct as the BCB employee because of the extra leaves he took. The contract of the head coach pointed to 45 off days per year, but he went for 112 days in the previous year and 59 days to date in 2024.
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“Chandika Hathurusingha has two counts of misconduct. The first is about an assault on a player. Secondly, he took too many leaves, more than what was in his contract.” The BCB president, Faruque Ahmed, at the presser in Dhaka.
Phil Simmons to replace Chandika Hathurusingha as Bangladesh head coach
The chief executive, Nizamuddin Chowdhury, handed a letter to the head coach regarding the decision at the Shere Bangla National Stadium just hours before the media declaration of Faruque.
“There were a couple of incidents about the current coach (Chandika Hathurusingha) which, for me as a former player, were quite painful. There was a misconduct with a player and misconduct as an employee.” Faruque Ahmed addressed this in the media interaction on October 15. “He also spent more than three months (on leave), which is also a large part of his misconduct. He informed us in a scattered way, in one or two emails, that he had to go home. It can’t be for more than three months.”
He denied naming the player involved in the whole incident, as he failed to fathom how, even in the heat of the moment, a coach could hit his player. According to him, the right punishment has been made but, it could have happened a bit earlier.
“I investigated myself. I spoke to the victim. I spoke to the eyewitnesses. Both of their versions are already in the report. (The incident) was mentioned in a previous report.” Faruque elaborated. “I felt something should have been done about it at the time. The ICC is quite strong about racism and abuse. They would be more serious about assault.”
Chandika Hathurusingha returned as the head coach of the Tigers for his second stint in February 2023. Under him, they produced underwhelming performances in the ODI and T20 World Cup, but his biggest achievement was the Test series victory in Pakistan with a 2-0 margin.
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In his position, they have signed Phil Simmons as the interim head coach till the 2025 Champions Trophy. The former West Indies, Afghanistan, Ireland, and Zimbabwe head coach will begin his work from the home Test series over South Africa. They will face Afghanistan for an ODI series besides making a trip to the Caribbean.
“We have appointed Phil Simmons for the interim period. His initial contract is up to the Champions Trophy. He was head coach in different countries. He has a very good track record. He has had a healthy career as a coach. We spoke to several coaches, and we got a hard-working guy.” The BCB president shed light.