On Monday (8th July), the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has announced Steve Rhodes’ departure from the head coach role of the national team. However, the BCB has also clarified that this separation was decided by mutual consent.
Steve Rhodes joined the Bangladesh national cricket team as the head coach in June 2018. Initially, Rhodes and the BCB had a contract till the end of the 2020 ICC T20 World Cup. However, this contract has been ended prematurely as both sides have decided to not continue it after the end of Bangladesh’s journey in the 2019 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup.
Bangladesh impressed in the 2019 CWC, but they finished in the eighth position after earning seven points. During this tournament, Bangladesh beat South Africa, Windies and Afghanistan.
According to ESPNcricinfo, the BCB CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury, “The board had a review following the Pakistan match [Bangladesh’s last at the World Cup] in a meeting in London. There it was decided that the BCB and Steve Rhodes will not continue on their agreement. The separation was by mutual consent.”
Bangladesh achieved some significant successes during Steve Rhodes’ tenure
In this one-year term under Rhodes’ coaching, Bangladesh achieved some great successes in international cricket. Apart from winning some great bilateral series, Bangladesh finished as the runners-up in the Asia Cup 2018. Just ahead of 2019 CWC, Bangladesh won their first ever multination tournament after winning the ODI tri-series in Ireland.
In late this month, Bangladesh will travel to Sri Lanka to play a three-match ODI series against the hosts. The BCB is trying to find out the proper replacement of Steve Rhodes as soon as possible.
Chowdhury added, “The BCB has not yet decided on a new coach for the Sri Lanka series, which is their next assignment.”
This three-match ODI series in Sri Lanka will run from 26th July to 31st July.
Courtney Walsh, Sunil Joshi also lost their contracts
Meanwhile, the BCB has also decided to not continue the contracts with the fast-bowling coach Courtney Walsh, spin-bowling coach Sunil Joshi, and physio Thihan Chandramohan. The limited-overs batting coach Neil McKenzie will not present during the upcoming Bangladesh tour of Sri Lanka. During that tour, McKenzie will be on personal leave.
However, the fielding coach Ryan Cook and analyst Shrinivas Chandrasekaran have retained their posts.