No Pakistan tour for Bangladesh's batting, fielding coaches

After Mushfiqur Rahim now Bangladesh’s batting coach Neil McKenzie and fielding coach Ryan Cook have withdrawn from the first leg of the upcoming Pakistan tour, the country’s cricket board said on Saturday (January 18).

Bangladesh Cricket Board’s cricket operations chairman Akram Khan said the team will be without five members of the coaching staff.

While former South African cricketer McKenzi and Cook have themselves withdrawn, the BCB decided not to call spin consultant Daniel Vettori for such a short series.

Also read: Bangladesh’s Mushfiqur declines to visit Pakistan for series

Team analyst Shrinivas Chandrasekaran was also not considered on account of him being an Indian citizen while strength and conditioning coach Mario Villavarayan has broken his hand.

“Mario broke his hand recently while team analyst will be working with the team over Skype. McKenzie and fielding coach will also not be going, while we haven’t yet confirmed on our new bowling coach,” Akram was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.

Sohel Islam and Tushar Kanti Howlader will act as replacements for Cook and Villavarayan respectively while head coach Rusell Domingo will only have the services of physio Julian Calefato from his regular staff.

Earlier this week, wicketkeeper-batsman Mushfiqur Rahim had also refused to travel to Pakistan.

Also read: Bangladesh rejects Test proposal in Pakistan, will play three T20Is

Bangladesh are scheduled to play three Twenty20 internationals, two Tests and one one-day international in Pakistan between January and April.

The T20I series will be played from January 24-27, followed by the first Test from February 7 to 11 in Rawalpindi.

However, due to the ongoing tension in the Middle East between Iran and the United States, the Bangladesh Cricket Board has rejected Pakistan’s proposal of playing the full Test series and will just participate in the three Twenty20 Internationals later this month.

“They (government authorities) have told us to play the three Twenty20s as quickly as possible in a short period. Later, if the situation improves, we can play Test matches. We are going to communicate the same thing to Pakistan Cricket Board,” BCB president Nazmul Hassan told reporters in Dhaka after a meeting of the board on Sunday (January 13).

Bangladesh will play an ODI on April 3 in Karachi before the second Test is played in the same city from April 5.

(With inputs from agencies)