Home ›› 25 Aug 2022 ›› Sport
Bangladesh Cricket Board removed Russel Domingo from the charge of the Twenty20 team and recruited Sridharan Sriram as the technical consultant, who will work as the de facto coach in this format till the ICC T20 World Cup in October-November.
With the appointment of Sriram, BCB is looking for quick fix of long-going ailment which has deep roots in cricket structure and cricketer’s mindset.
The Tigers have a long history of not doing well in the 20-over format. Bangladesh were thought to be a force to reckon with in T20s when it was new as they had a young side and toppled West Indies in their first global outing.
Popular belief is that the shorter the game, the higher the chances for the underdogs. But that was not the case for Bangladesh. With the rise of franchise leagues and the influx of money, T20 turned into the golden goose of cricket. The lack of power-hitting abilities and required skill-set for the format gradually sidelined the cricketers of Bangladesh from the popular franchise leagues.
Bangladesh Premier League, a franchise league launched by BCB, also failed to produce T20 specialists as the tournament lacks stability, credibility, and quality.
Matches played on doctored pitches against second-string sides before the T20 World Cup gave Bangladesh a false sense of confidence which exploded in the marquee tournament.
BCB officials, players, and their family members all engaged in verbal and social media confrontation during the World Cup, and instability continued. The recent captaincy conundrum also exposed that there is no specific plan or approach from the BCB before the next World Cup.
But after the debacle in Zimbabwe, BCB suffered a jolt, and very quickly, they made major changes in the T20 set-up. Shakib Al Hasan became T20 captain once again, Domingo was relieved of the T20 charge, and former Indian cricketer Sriram was appointed as the technical consultant the day before the team left for Dubai to take part in the Asia Cup.
Sriram, who worked as the spin-bowling assistant coach for six years with the Australian cricket team, is tagged with the team for the next three months, but the question is what he can do in this term to cure the chronic problems.
Nazmul Abedeen Fahim, the cricket advisor of BKSP and a veteran coach, told The Business Post that Sriram should be given more time.
“We should not expect wonders from him. For a long time, our T20 results have not been satisfactory. The board has adopted a new policy, but the change came a bit late. Let’s see what he can do. I must not make any comment at this moment, but I think he should be given enough time because a coach needs to understand the players, the team culture, and many more things before he can get into work,” Fahim said on Wednesday.
Sriram worked closely with the spinners of the Australia before a brief stint with the Indian Premier League franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore, where he worked as the batting and spin bowling coach.
The former Indian cricketer played just eight One-Day Internationals. Coincidentally, his last outing with the Men in Blue was against Bangladesh in 2004, where he ended up on the losing side.
Bangladesh developed a nasty habit of giving too many dot balls in T20, a poor batting strike rate, and a lack of big-hitting abilities in T20.
Surprisingly, Sriram is not known for giving solutions to any of these problems. Rather, the former left-arm spinner worked closely with Aussie spinners Steve O’Keefe, Nathan Lyon, Adam Zampa, and Mitchell Swepson as he was credited by the fans for a drought-breaking Test win in Pune on the 2017 India tour.
Nazmul feels that Sriram will be rather working on strategy and gameplan level.
“I think the BCB is hiring some specialist for batting. As a technical analyst, Sriram might work more with the mental approach, game plan, and strategy. He worked with the IPL team and can bring in that experience,” Nazmul told The Business Post.
Aftab Ahmed, former cricketer and the newly-appointed coach of the T10 franchise Bangla Tigers, told The Business Post that change in coaching personnel is not the solution.
“We cannot expect someone to do something magically. There is a process. It takes months to understand players, their strengths and weaknesses. A change of coach, just on the brink of an important tournament, is not a good sign. The process had to start earlier,” he told The Business Post.
Though BCB president Nazmul Hassan gave a plausible explanation, “We wanted to make changes, but before that, we wanted to know the entire Future Tours Programme so that we can see how many matches we are going to play.”
Shakib was neither happy nor unhappy with the decision as he said, “The change could come earlier, that is also true. But at the same time, it could have been done even later as well. So, we have to adapt to the reality.”
In a nutshell, Sriram is the gimmick that BCB played to cover up the debacle in Zimbabwe and also to teach Domingo a lesson. BCB put Domingo in other roles and roped in Sriram as the technical consultant, but it is unclear whether he could function fully or not after the board president’s words on Monday.
“There will not be any head coach (with the team). We have a batting coach, a spin coach, fast bowling coach, and a fielding coach. We have the captain. We also have a technical consultant for T20s. He will give the game plan. We have the team director (Khaled Mahmud), Jalal Yunus (the BCB’s cricket operations chairman] bhai, and myself. Who else do we need?” said Nazmul.
Sriram had a hero’s welcome at the SBNCS, but if Bangladesh fail to qualify for the super four round, it’s pretty sure that he will face the other side of the coin soon.
