Khaled Mahmud has expressed his disappointment in accepting the position of Bangladesh team director for the World Cup after learning he wouldn’t be able to offer any cricketing or technical advice throughout the competition.
Bangladesh is ranked second dead last in the 2023 World Cup points standings. They have only been able to defeat Afghanistan in their one victory, and in the other games, they have not been able to compete with their opponents, going down without a fight in the tournament.
Speaking to the media ahead of the clash against Sri Lanka, Khaled Mahmud stated that his current responsibilities are restricted to traveling with the team and upholding discipline and added that he isn’t involved in coaching the team not being in a technical role, and regretted taking up the role with the Bangladesh in the ODI World Cup.
“I am performing only the role assigned to me by the BCB,”
“I don’t have the decision-making role as I have had in previous tours as a selector. Previously, I tried to keep myself involved with the team. This time, I don’t have a cricketing role. Firstly, I don’t want to be in this role like this. I have cricket in my blood. Coaching is my profession. But I am not involved with coaching with the Bangladesh team”.
“I had a technical role even at the last World Cup when I could speak to players. But this time, I am keeping myself away. I am definitely not enjoying this role as the head of the delegation. I am just roaming around, playing the role as a guardian to the players. I am taking care of discipline, but this is not really my work. If I knew this was my role, I wouldn’t have come to the World Cup,” Khaled Mahmud said.
Bangladesh suffered their sixth consecutive defeat in the 2023 World Cup. Shakib Al Hasan’s led side’s batting lineup collapsed miserably against Pakistan’s bowling attack and the Men in Green batter chased down the total within 33 overs to outplay the Bangla Tigers in the game.
Due to pollution in the nation’s capital, Bangladesh postponed their planned training session at the Arun Jaitley Stadium ahead of their game against Sri Lanka. The management of the Bangladesh team decided to postpone the training session after multiple players reported feeling unwell ahead of the match on Monday.