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Role of Domingo as Tigers’ coach to be evaluated


Bangladeshpost
Published : 07 Apr 2021 08:07 PM | Updated : 08 Apr 2021 12:34 AM

Cricbuzz

Russell Domingo appears to be on borrowed time after Bangladesh suffered three successive series losses on the trot across formats in the last few months, with the board getting impatient with the head coach to deliver results. In what comes as a clear indication of Domingo's role being under scrutiny, Bangladesh Cricket Board's high-profile directors had a meeting and decided to appoint their Game Development chairman Khaled Mahmud as the head of delegation for the upcoming tour of Sri Lanka.

BCB cricket operations chairmanAkram Khan told Cricbuzz that they will evaluate the performance of the foreign coaching staff after the home series against Sri Lanka. "After the home series against Sri Lanka we are expected to do an evaluation meeting and we will discuss everything about the coaches in that meeting. We will surely evaluate the performance of our head coach (Domingo) along with others and see where we stand," Akram said.

According to BCB insiders, Domingo has been under the scanner for quite some time. His contract runs until August 2021 after being appointed for two years in 2019, and whether it should be extended is expected to be the major talking point in the evaluation meeting. A high-ranking official of the BCB confirmed to Cricbuzz that they have already started looking out for a high profile replacement ahead of the next ICC T20 World Cup. Some members of BCB are in favour of Ottis Gibson taking on the role.

Domingo's vision of a long-term plan played a big part in his appointment and he raised the expectations with his willingness to develop a good cricketing culture by putting more emphasis on Test cricket. But they were not getting the desired result- winning only one Test out of seven, while Bangladesh won 13 games and lost 17 across formats during his tenure so far.

Meanwhile, some BCB officials suggested it would be premature to judge Domingo's performance, especially since Bangladesh did not play international cricket for close to a year due to the COVID-19 forced break. Bangladesh did win the ODI series against West Indies but lost the two Test series that followed and were white-washed by New Zealand in the ODI and T20I series.

Domingo is yet to find out replacements for the likes of Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal, Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah and his failure to back youngsters for considerable amount of time is certainly providing an impression that he is not sure regarding the ability of his charges, especially the youngster.

Mahmud's report, which will be submitted during the evaluation meeting, will be key in deciding Domingo's future as Bangladesh coach. Meanwhile, Mahmud said that his main job during the Sri Lanka series is to find out how the coach operates and whether there is disharmony in the dressing room.

"I think we have taken him on the basis of being a good coach. I will get to know him better when I will have a close look at him from now," Mahmud told reporters on Tuesday (April 7). "Performance will not depend on the coach. The coach can give you planning and can give training but the players will have to play well.

"I don't know what happened to team Bangladesh and since I'm going with the team now, I will see what happens. I will try to clear any problems in Bangladesh team. My target will be to make an environment that they fight shoulder to shoulder and win by playing well," said Mahmud.