Mike Hesson, Chandika Hathrusingha lead the race for Bangladesh head coach
Getty
After Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) decided not to renew the contracts with Steve Rhodes, Mike Hesson and Chandika Hathrusingha are leading the race to grab the head coach position. While Hesson just resigned from his role as Kings XI Punjab coach, Hathrusingha will leave Sri Lanka Cricket soon.
With their one-off Test against Afghanistan just a month away, Bangladesh Cricket Board are trying to bring an end to their search for the next coach. While the board has already shortlisted candidates like Mike Hesson, Grant Flower, Paul Farbrace, Russell Domingo, and Chandika Hathurusingha after Andy Flower declined the board's offer for a second time, Farbrace later declined the offer to take things further.
However, ESPNcricinfo reported that former New Zealand coach Hesson is a frontrunner for the role with BCB president Nazmul Hassan and some directors expressing interest in him. However, Russell Domingo, who coached South Africa from 2013 to 2016, was the first coach to be interviewed as the board began its process in Dhaka on Thursday. The return of Hathrusingha is also a widely discussed topic in BCB now and Sri Lanka Cricket's controversial appointment seems to have been the major reason behind Bangladesh's U-turn for Hathrusingha.
Hathurusingha, who coached Bangladesh from 2014 to 2017, is reported to be a favourite of the BCB president and a few directors, even though he quit to take up the Sri Lanka job in October 2017. The BCB, meanwhile, was impressed with Domingo's presentation during the interview and an official stated that it was satisfying for the BCB.
"We have started working with our shortlisted coaches," the BCB's media committee chairman, Jalal Yunus, said. "We have just conducted an interview with Russell Domingo, the former South Africa coach. He is a real professional. He is well qualified. He gave us a presentation about what he thinks about Bangladesh cricket. It was satisfying for the BCB. We will interview the rest of the coaches on our shortlist. We have two more to interview in the next few days, and then we will choose between these coaches."
