Suspended As Bangladesh Coach Chandika Hathurusingha

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has suspended Chandika Hathurusingha as the head mentor of the men's national group with quick impact. BCB President Faruque Ahmed uncovered that the suspension, on disciplinary grounds, will become a termination following 48 hours and that previous West Indies cricketer Phil Simmons, will act as the interim head mentor with his contract set to run till the 2025 Champions Prize.

"Hathurusingha's suspension is a 48-hour notice period, which we are giving him because he is an international figure. We have suspended him and with quick impact he will be terminated," Faruque said on Tuesday (October 15).

One of the disciplinary issues associated resulting in Hathurusingha's axing was a physical and verbal confrontation the mentor had with a player during the 2023 ODI World Cup in India.

"There were several incidents about the ongoing mentor which, for me as a previous player, was quite painful. It didn't set a genuine model for the Bangladesh group. Considering these things, we have served him today with a show cause notice and suspension from obligation as head mentor. This is not a simple cycle from a lawful standpoint, and also we needed to find another mentor," Faruque said.

"I truly felt awful from the second I found out about the incident from the papers. I felt something should be done about it. The ICC strongly handles racism and abuse. They would be more focused on attack. It was a truly miserable incident for the specific player. I'm not defending anyone however anything could occur in the heat existing apart from everything else. However, you cannot hit a national player. It is not on. This is the right punishment. It should have happened some time back.

"The media expounded strongly on why the [World Cup 2023] report won't ever emerged. We chipped away at the report. I met the player. We had a couple of things happening so it took time for us to make quick work of it. Every one of this occurred after the India series. I'm cheerful as a previous player, captain and presently as a board president that we had the option to make it happen."

Another count of Hathurusingha's misconduct originated from the Sri Lankan having taken a bigger number of leaves than was granted in his contract. "He spent over 90 days (in leave days)," Faruque uncovered.

"It is also a huge piece of his misconduct. He informed in a dispersed manner in one or two messages that he needs to return home. It can't be over 90 days. I just cannot would anything that I like to do as a board president. I should be guided by some rules. It is the norm. So there was a serious break in such manner. There was a misconduct with a player, and misconduct as a worker.

"I didn't address him. The Chief has spoken to him on my behalf, and handed over the [show cause] letter to him. It is for attack and going on leave without taking the board's permission. In any event, for neglected leaves, one needs to take the business' permission."

The improvement comes in the result of Bangladesh's disappointing tour of India where they were whitewashed in the Tests and T20Is by huge margins.

Hathurasingha's exit denotes an underwhelming end to his concise second stint as Bangladesh mentor with the significant fiascos being the 2023 ODI World Cup and the 2024 T20 World Cup. The previous Sri Lankan all-rounder had assumed control over the reins in January 2023 with a guide of moving Bangladesh cricket forward, like he had during his most memorable stint from 2014-17. During that period, the national group gained significant headway, especially in white-ball cricket with great showings in the 2017 Champions Prize, thereby gaining automatic qualification to the 2019 ODI World Cup.

Meanwhile, the BCB president had expressions of praise for Phil Simmons - his new, albeit interim, appointment. Simmons, who drove West Indies to the 2016 T20 World Cup title and has had coaching stints with Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, Ireland and PNG among others, will begin his new task with a two-Test series against South Africa this month.

"We have appointed Phil Simmons for the interim time frame. His initial contract depends on the Champions Prize. He was head mentor in various nations. He has a generally excellent history. He has worked with many franchises, including tournaments like the PSL and MLC. He has had a healthy vocation as a mentor. We addressed a number of coaches, yet we got a truly focused person. I have spoken to him in the past when he came to Bangladesh already