Bangladesh Cricket Board President Nazmul Hassan confirmed that Russell Domingo, who was made in charge of Bangladesh teams as a coach would get his contract renewed at least till the upcoming T20 World cup. Speaking at a press conference, Hassan was disappointed by the team’s batting in the first ODI, especially with the shot selection of few players.
"If we don't renew his contract, we would be needing someone as a backup,” the BCB Prez said. “We don't have any such thoughts in this Covid situation with a World Cup coming up. This is the reality,” he added.
Digging deep into the shot selection matter, the 59-year-old administrator further said, “If we ask him [Domingo] why they batted badly, he will point towards their shot selection. What will be my reply? We first have to find out the problem.” Blaming Covid for not having a fruitful conversation with players, he further said, “I can't even sit with the players due to Covid. They don't even allow me into the bio-bubble. What can I do?"
Sitting in the Board President’s chair for the last nine years, Hassan criticised the team’s approach to playing Liton Das at the top. He said, "[Liton] can open in T20s, but my personal opinion is that he is better at No. 5 or 6. We have to sit with them. I don't want to force anything on them. I don't do that anymore. I think we will have a solution."
Hassan, a parliamentarian further questioned the tour planning of the national team and the lack of practice because of the quarantine. "Is this any type of preparation? He asked listing how Bangladesh played Tests before going to New Zealand and then even before the start of this limited vers series, they played Tests in Sri Lanka.
“We played ODIs and T20s in New Zealand after playing Tests. Then we played Tests in Sri Lanka. We are not having our usual procedure of preparation,” he said. The Bangladesh team though won the first ODI comfortably by 33 runs at the Shere Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka to lead the three-match series 1-0.