Newly appointed Bangladesh Cricket Board president Faruk Ahmed stood to his decision of not keeping national team head coach Chandika Hathurusingha.
Faruk took the chair as the BCB boss Wednesday in a BCB emergency meeting held at the Ministry of Youth and Sports.
In the meeting, Nazmul Hasan’s resignation was announced, Faruk and Nazmul Abedeen Fahim were included as the new board directors and Faruk was handed charge as the new BCB president.
Faruk, replacing Awami League backed Nazmul, has been talk of the cricket fraternity for the last few days.
In his interactions with different media outlets, Faruk had strong opinion of relieving Hathurusingha of his duties.
Faruk has come at the helm of the BCB having resigned as the chief of the national selection panel in 2016 after the board ratified significant changes to the way Bangladesh squads were chosen.
Faruk during his resignation had said the involvement of board members in the selection process, including head coach Hathurusingha, was too much of an interference.
“My stance is still the same [of not keeping Hathurusingha]. But when you work in an organization you need to follow the decorum. I have just now taken charge and not aware of Hathurusingha’s contract. But I am still at my old place and will look at what needs to be done discussing with the CEO (Nizamuddin Chowdhury) and others. I have not moved away from my stance,” said Faruk to the media at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium later on the day.
It is understood that there is strong discussion within the board of not continuing with Hathurusingha following the ongoing Test series in Pakistan.
When queried of the possible replacement before Bangladesh’s next assignment, that is in India in September, Faruk said: “It is tough to make a comment on that at the moment. Let me sit [in the office] for two-three days. I see involvement of local coaches as very important. Need to have discussion with everyone. There is a big responsibility on me because I need to call the shots but that is after discussion with everyone else involved.”
The BCB now has 10 active directors including Faruk.
Majority of the directors including former BCB chief Nazmul are in hiding given their close involvement with the fallen Sheikh Hasina government.
There are questions with regards to integrity even now given some directors are still visible and part of the Faruk Ahmed-led board, and there are employees in the BCB with their fingers pointed at them for possible irregularities and corruption.
Faruk emphasized on addressing the matters.
“The directors that are now there have to work with multiple committees. You can see there is not everyone present,” said Faruk.
“I know there has been a lot of irregularities and it is not possible to rectify everything in a day. But I can assure you that things that directly affect cricket will soon be taken care of. For cases with corruption, we will need to take help from experts. We need to see how to proceed with that,” said the former cricketer.
