'If a senior doesn't perform, Hathurusingha won't keep him in the team'

Bangladesh Cricket Board President Nazmul Hasan is hopeful that the national team has a healthy dressing room from the upcoming home series against England. In an exclusive chat with Cricbuzz, the BCB boss spoke at length about the issues faced by head coach Russell Domingo, the plan for local coaches in the national set up and the challenges that lie ahead for the returning Chandika Hathurusingha.

Excerpts:

How did it all start for you at the Bangladesh Cricket Board?

When I came I called the support staff, I called the head coach (Shane Jurgensen) and later I called the captain (Mushfiqur Rahim) and the senior players and at that point after talking with them what I felt is that the role of the coach is very unclear.

When I asked the coach what is your plan he said that he will let me know after talking with the captain and the senior players, and when I asked the players they said the same. So I felt there was no specific plan. I asked the coach what is your long term plan and the coach said that no new players should come in for the next three to four years and it was like shock to me. Players also said the same thing, especially the captain and I felt this is the way it is happening here and probably this is the culture.

Their logic was that if new players comes in then older players lose confidence. I decided that we must come out of this and I need new players. But because both captain and coach said the same thing about the situation, it was difficult for me. So I changed the whole coaching staff (appointed Chandika Hathurusingha in 2014).

There was another thing I heard that players weren't coming to practice, and even when they came, they didn't train. Some even came late. I felt that we have to implement some professionalism.

My first priority was to bring discipline (minimum in the ground) and made sure we introduce inventory management so that I could be aware of our stocks and accountability on the finanacial side. BCB were owed money by few who weren't paying up. There were no agreement papers so they refused to pay.

When I went to the ICC board meeting for the first time, my experience was very bad as I felt that there was no place for Bangladesh there. In the next meeting it came up that Bangladesh and Zimbabwe would be excluded from Tests. So after that meeting my major focus went to performances because when you are performing there is no way we cannot draw their attention.

Our target was if we can go to fifth in the ranking then everyone will give us importance. Another thing was crowd, and unless a team can draw crowd they (ICC) are not willing to rate them highly. Both of them are interrelated and if the performance is good than it will certainly bring crowd.

At that juncture, we appointed Hathurusingha and he provided a guideline on how we should play against certain teams when they come to Bangladesh, like on what kind of wickets we will play, with which ball we will play them as there were Kookaburra balls and SG balls. He was very specific about his preparation and later he introduced certain things and at that point our boys were playing very well and we could effectively implement our plan. Only after winning the series against India was there some kind of buzz and ofcourse when we beat South Africa seven years ago there was huge applause in the ICC as our ranking also got higher and we found we have lot of fans following us. This is how it all started for me.

You appointed Chandika Hathurusingha as head coach in October 2022 but Russell Domingo resigned in January 2023. At any point of time did you get a hint that Domingo might leave without completing his tenure?

Let me explain. When Hathurusingha was completing his first stint it was not like everyone liked him. For Russell Domingo, all I can say is that there was nothing negative against him with respect to his performance as a coach, except two things. Number one - win or loss was not important for him as he was always thinking of future which is good, but he always used to experiment in the two major tournaments (Asia Cup and World Cup).

My point is why would you experiment in these two tournaments when you can do that in the bilateral series. You see the last T20 World Cup (when he was at the helm) he made changes in every match and I felt this is not the right way. Number two - In our country you have to tell the cricketers a lot of things.

Domingo complained there was lot of outside noise and pointed fingers at Khaled Mahmud? Can you tell me what is Khaled Mahmud's role and what he brings to the table?

Domingo, and even Steve Rhodes, have only one issue and that is they don't like to send messages on the field. They always asked why do you have to tell something during the game because their logic is that unless they make mistakes, how can they learn, but this is not our culture and we cannot accept it. Even Mahmud didn't accept it and always gave advice - don't bowl to him now or don't do this at the moment.

And when Mahmud tells these things from the outside, they mind and even complained to me. 'Why is he (Mahmud) giving suggestion from the dressing room and this cannot go on'. At that point, I have to tell them this is our culture and we are following this from street cricket to club cricket to everywhere and you cannot change that suddenly. I was happy with his performance but I felt he had given up in the end.

After Hathurusingha left, you brought Steve Rhodes and Domingo but both of them failed to meet your expectation. Do you feel that was because of cultural differences? Is Hathurusingha the way to go now since he's like a strict head master?

I am not sure why they call him strict head master. He talks straightforward and he will say things to the face of the players. His best part is that if he wants to say something he will tell the player individually. If he wants to say something negative about a player, he won't say that in front of others. With Domingo the problem was that he used to tell everything in front of everyone and it became a problem for the players.

Rhodes's approach was very different. He used to ask why do we have to win. During the World Cup, he would say it's just a game. This was his attitude about winning games but for us it was very important to win. As far as Domingo is concerned, he was doing very well but recently he just gave up because he was saw that he might have to clash with senior players and he didn't want to do it and decided to let them do whatever they wanted. For Hathurusingha the main challenge is that we have a couple of players who will not play for a long time.

I called Mahmudullah a couple of days back and said to him, 'if you have any retirement plan, please tell us, because we are ready to have a situation where you can retire after playing a series and he said that he will let me know but I know he will not let me know. Till now only Tamim told me.

Do you think a farewell series is a possibilty in today's times?

Nowadays it is very difficult because there are three formats. How can you give farewell in different formats at different times? For example, if he (Mahmudullah) had informed us when he left Tests, we could have announced it before the game and could have organized few other things as farwell. If he (Mahmudullah) feels that he will quit T20Is or ODIs, we can do something like the way Malinga or Tendulkar retired. If the players don't want it, then it is up to them but the message I want to give is that we are ready. I have asked Mashrafe Mortaza many times about a farewell but he did not want it, and he hasn't quit international cricket yet.

Hathurusingha had lot of issues with the seniors in his first stint. Do you feel his biggest challenge will be handling the seniors?

Hathurusingha has both positive and negatives. He decides when he will say something to someone, and even I don't know. For example, he all of a sudden told Mortaza when we were playing the Nidhas Trophy, and he was very upset. When we met, I asked him what happened and said that Hathurusingha told him that he could be dropped in a couple of matches in the World Cup. But he was the captain at that point of time so Hathurusingha asked him to be mentally prepared and told him to think about it.

Our players are not accustomed to these kinds of chats. At that point, I asked Hathurusingha to not say these kind of things and at least let me know what is happening when it comes to senior players. After Hathurusingha left, we were losing a lot of matches against Sri Lanka and all those teams, and one day Mortaza told me to bring him (Hathurusingha). Apart from that, I have heard there is something between him and Tamim Iqbal, though neither he nor the player told me anything in this regard. But even Tamim told me to bring him so before appointing him I have spoken with the players and they all told me to bring him.

Hathurusingha dropped Mahmudullah from the 100th Test, and he had a distant relationship with Mushfiqur in his previous stint...

He had dropped others as well, like he dropped Mominul. At that point of time, he felt that he had better keeper than Mushfiqur and always preferred that the best available option should keep wickets. This is his way of thinking as a coach, even if we think why do we need to have the best wicketkeeper when we can field the second best or the third best keeper and opt for a better batter.

This time, the first thing that he said while sitting with directors and selectors, and what I have heard, is that his only priority is fielding. He said that he can hone batting and bowling, but he cannot improve fielding and the standard of our fielding is not good because whatever matches he has seen he felt that our fielding is not up to the mark.

He said that he can hide one or two cricketers but where can he hide five to six fielders. This is a big problem and he said we are going to play the World Cup and that it (poor fielding standards) cannot go on. At one stage there should be a cutoff point - either you improve your fielding or you will be dropped. When we were talking we were praising Taskin for the way he had made a comeback and the first thing he asked was about his fielding, because he was not good at it. This is where things stand.

Do you think Hathurusingha can manage the seniors?

I think it will be difficult. Even Domingo had problems with seniors and at one point he just gave up and if you give up then it won't benefit us. If the coach doesn't say anything and just lets others do whatever they do, there is no point (in keeping him) and we needed to have a change there. I didn't want to become the president this time round because I know this time I have to take some harsh decisions like I did in my first term.

So it will be tough (with the seniors). The problem with our players is that they are not telling us anything by themselves about their future. For Hathurusingha, it will be a big challenge (both for him as well as for seniors) because I know one thing that if a senior doesn't perform, Hathurusingha won't keep him in the team.

At different points, coaches complained to you about some seniors. Some of the coaches felt that unless seniors are pampered it is difficult to run the dressing room...

After the arrival of Hathurusingha, I feel a problem will arise but I am not ready to disclose it. All I can do is hope that the problem won't not big. He will not consider all this (pampering seniors in the dressing room) and that is the biggest problem. Either everyone will have to work according to his plan or he will leave, because that's how he is.

There is a difference between the Bangladesh that he guided before and the team that he is taking over. Now Tamim will speak his mind and Shakib will do that as well. The good thing about Shakib is that he never had any problem with any coach.

What about the others? Don't you think they will have some kind of problem?

I will sit with the captain and the senior players and have a chat. Though I had a chat with Hathurusingha, I did not want to discuss at length with him as he came after a long time. Let me give him some time to understand the situation. After that, we can take his opinion. But I will sit with Tamim and talk.

I don't think there will be any problem with Tamim and Hathurusingha. When he came last time, Tamim's performance was not good and everyone was asking why are we not dropping him (Tamim). At that point in his first stint, I spoke to Hathurusingha about this. He said that Tamim is one of the best batsman, so you just give me three months' time and I will make him fine. I don't think he will have problem with Tamim and Shakib.

But there is a problem that a few coaches have a tendency of picking players of their choice and keeping him in the side because they have a good relationship, and they cannot drop him because of that. Hathurusingha won't accept this. He will give chances and see, but if a player is not clicking then at some point he will intervene. As far as Mushfiqur and Mahmudullah are concerned I personally was very happy seeing Mushfiqur score runs in the BPL final.

I was so upset for Mushfiqur because for the last one and a half years, he was not scoring runs. I have always said that Mushfiqur is our best batter. I still feel he will be able to score runs but the issue is wicket-keeping. If he's not keeping, then questions will be raised regarding his fielding and if he does keep, he will have to improve a bit.

I don't have any problem with Mahmudullah's batting but so far the complaints or say that negative things that I have received against him (Mahmudullah) from others are about his fielding. With age, a lot of things change, like reflexes, eyesight and reaction time. Mahmudullah was our important all-rounder because at critical times we used to make him bowl.

What I feel is that they will continue to play now, but after two years, it's definitely no.

Some of the coaches complained that some of these cricketers are un- coachable. What do you think of that?

Some of the coaches complained that players don't come to them for batting advice. What I feel is that if a batter doesn't go to the batting coach, how will they develop? It is not only Ashwell Prince but other coaches also said the same. But you have to understand that there are a couple of seniors who do private practice and this is something some coaches accept and some coaches don't.

Why didn't you continue with Sridharan Sriram, and does he have any chance to return?

When we brought him in, we had only T20 World Cup in mind because I was frustrated seeing our performance in T20 Asia Cup and World Cup. We brought him for changing the mindset. We didn't think about him as head coach for all formats and we didn't discuss anything in this regard with him.

Another problem is that he is engaged with IPL and we are not inclined to bring coaches for certain period because if that was the case there were other coaches who need time for different franchise leagues that we could've brought in. One of the criterias for bringing Hathurusingha was his availability. His (Sriram's) contract ran till 2024 in IPL and if it is renewed he will stay in the IPL so there would be uncertainty. Let him think in 2024 and if he feels he is fully available and that point if we want to bring him in, we can sit and have a chat with him.

Why are Bangladesh always opting for foreign coaches? What chances do local coaches have in getting a national team gig? We have very successful coach in Mohammad Salahuddin, who has won BPL four times...

We have given an advertisement for an assistant coach. We have approached Salahuddin through people and he said he cannot do it and we have approached the one who is in ICC (Aminul Islam). Look they give an impression that they are ready but in reality that is not the case because firstly this is not an easy job and with the FTP we have, it's a full-time job.

Let the local coaches apply, we want local coaches to come forward. My plan is that we will have local coaches in every department and groom them while they work with in the national set-up because when they (head coaches) leave these (local) coaches will have certain ideas about how to run the show.

I have spoken about it (local coaches in the national set-up) with Hathurusingha. I have a plan about player progression for next eight years - where these cricketers will come from and will replace whom. It will be similar to the way Hathurusingha did it in his first tenure when he gave it (player progression) three years. After working with these coaches in the national team, later they will take over Under-19, High Performance, Bangladesh Tigers programs and some will stay back in the national team. I am planning to implement this as far as developing the local coaches is concerned.

It is an open secret that there is a rift between Shakib and Tamim and there is speculation that they are not on talking terms and just have a relationship for the sake of professionalism. Do you feel it can be sorted and do you feel this is a healthy dressing room?

This is not a healthy dressing room, this I can guarantee you. This thing (rift between Shakib and Tamim), it's not that I have not tried to sort it out. I have spoken with both of them and I felt that it is not easy to settle the issues (between them) at the moment. This is my observation. Both of them have been given one message - we don't know what is going on between you, but during a game or series that you are playing, these differences cannot come out. Both of them assured that it won't be there during the game.

There is grouping as well in the national team as certain players belong to certain quarters?

The biggest problem for Bangladesh cricket at the moment is this grouping and that is the reality. I don't have a problem with anything else. I am only scared about this grouping and I only came to know about it in recent times. Even in the World Cup, what I have seen and heard despite not staying in their hotel... I cannot believe how it is possible. We have to put an end to it if we want to see a good future because one thing everyone needs to understand is that there is no scope for grouping.

Even if you put an end to grouping, doesn't it look poor when two players are not in talking terms?

They (Shakib and Tamim) have to talk on the field and in the dressing room as well. The atmosphere of the dressing room was bad too but it improved a bit. From this series (upcoming home series against England) I want to change it (their relationship) in the dressing room at least. What they do outside is not a concern for me.