The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has officially ended the contract of their national team’s head coach, Chandika Hathurusinghe, because of misconduct and breaking the rules of his job. Hathurusinghe, who started his job again in January 2023, had five months left on his contract.
On Tuesday, October 15, the BCB sent him a notice asking for an explanation. After getting his answer on Wednesday, October 16, the Board had an urgent meeting on Thursday to look at the situation. After that, they decided to end Hathurusinghe’s contract.
“After thinking about everything, the board decided that Hathurusinghe’s explanation was not good enough and not okay. They also found his actions to be wrong and not doing his job properly. So, he is fired right away,” said a statement from the BCB.
Instead of Hathurusinghe, the BCB chose former West Indies cricketer Phil Simmons as the new Head Coach for the men’s team. Simmons will be in charge when the team plays against South Africa in a home Test series, against Afghanistan in an away ODI series, against the West Indies in Test, ODI, and T20I series, and in the ICC Champions Trophy in Pakistan, which is planned for February-March 2025.
Before this, BCB chief Faruque Ahmed criticized Hathurusinghe for “hitting a player” and breaking other rules in his contract.
“Hathurusinghe has two issues of wrongdoing. The first is that he hurt a player. The second is that he took more time off than his contract allowed,” Ahmed said at a press conference in Dhaka on Tuesday.
“There was a problem with how he treated a player and also with how he acted as an employee. He took more than three months off, which is a big part of his wrongdoing. He told us in a few emails that he needed to go home. But he can’t be away for more than three months. Even as the board president, I have to follow rules. It’s the usual way things are done. So, he seriously broke those rules.”
With Hathurusinghe as coach, Bangladesh won 2-0 against Pakistan in a Test series held outside their home country. However, Hathurusinghe received criticism when the team did not make it to the ODI World Cup semifinals last year and did not meet expectations in the T20 World Cup.
