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GRUDGE OR MERIT
to decide Hathurusingha’s fate?
BISHWAJIT ROY
As Bangladesh’s head coach, Chandika Hathurusingha has ample reasons to be proud of his charges’ achievements following their historic 2-0 Test series win in Pakistan. However, all is not well for the Sri Lankan, who had to confront questions about his future with the Tigers during the recently concluded memorable tour, despite his current contract with Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) running until the Champions Trophy in 2025.
Usually, uncertainty surrounds this kind of job when the team underperforms, but for the current Bangladesh coach, the situation has turned out differently due to the change at board’s top position.
It is no secret that the new BCB president, Faruque Ahmed, is not in favour of Hathurusingha. The former national captain has been most vocal against Hathurusingha for the last few years and made it clear after taking charge of the country’s most prominent sports body that he hasn’t changed his stance.
Will the success against Pakistan put Faruque in a difficult position regarding the decision to remove Hathurusingha from his role?
The most important question, however, is whether the former skipper will act on a previous personal grudge when making decisions about Hathurusingha’s future, or whether he will base his decisions on merit for the greater good of Bangladesh cricket.
In June 2016, the then-chief selector Faruque resigned from his post hours after the Nazmul Hassan Papon-led board ratified significant changes to the selection procedure. It was believed that Hathurusingha played a vital role in changing the system, which Faruque said created the possibility of interference.
Since then, Faruque has repeatedly complained about the Sri Lankan’s detrimental interference in the team, influencing decision-making outside his purview, and the damaging impact on Bangladesh cricket’s decline.
If we look at Hathurusingha’s success rate as Bangladesh coach, it is not unimpressive: During his first stint (May 19, 2014 – November 9, 2017), Bangladesh won six Tests out of 21 and drew four, while winning 25 ODIs out of 52. In 29 T20Is, the Tigers won 10 matches. During his second stint (from December 8, 2022, to date), Bangladesh won five Tests out of 10 and lost five, while winning three ODIs out of six and 10 T20Is out of 21 matches.
Hathurusingha’s planning during his first tenure received much praise before his controversial departure. Bangladesh not only secured several memorable ODI home series wins -- against India, Pakistan, and South Africa, as well as Test victories against England and Australia, and an away Test win against Sri Lanka -- but they also reached the semifinal of the Champions Trophy and the quarterfinal of the 2015 World Cup.
His current tenure has been marked by a home T20I series whitewash victory against the then-reigning champions England and a Test win against New Zealand, before the Rawalpindi heroics.
Unfortunately, this time around, he has been in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. The Sri Lankan agonisingly failed to manage the team properly in two disastrous ICC showpiece events -- the T20 World Cup and the 50-over World Cup. Moreover, rather than fostering unity, he seemingly created more chaos, particularly in the fraught relationship between Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal.
During Nazmul Hassan Papon’s tenure, Hathurusingha was hardly accountable to anyone, as the former BCB boss always preferred to look at the short-term success his reign followed and made exceptions in viewing how the Sri Lankan operated. Faruque, however, values systems, and he must determine whether a lack of a proper system has caused all the problems.
If, after analysing everything, he concludes that Hathurusingha lacks the long-term vision and calibre to manage the team or has issues with discipline, then his earlier stance will be justified, regardless of the team’s historic success in Pakistan.
Personal bitterness, however, should not influence these decisions. After all, it is the board’s responsibility to ensure the system remains untainted.