Hathurusingha to take up coaching job on Dec 10

Chandika Hathurusingha is expected to take up the head coach position with the national cricket team on December 10, Mirrorcricket.com can confirm now.

Official sources confirmed the signing Hathurusingha as Graham Ford’s replacement. They have had four candidates for the job, including interim coach Nic Pothas, Jason Gillespie and Geoff Marsh. But their preferred choice has been Hathurusingha, a highly-rated coach in world cricket at present.

“He should be here by December 10,”authoritative sources confirmed on the condition of anonymity. “We are in the process of making his contract papers.

Last week, Sri Lanka appointed Thilan Samaraweera as batting coach, reportedly on Hathurusingha’s recommendation. Samaraweera was Bangladesh’s batting consultant under him.

Hathurusingha is contracted by BCB until the 2019 World Cup but SLC had been in negotiations with him since Graham Ford’s exit as Sri Lanka head coach in June.

According to reports from Bangladesh, there has been some tension between the coach and senior players of the team recently, while many are speculating that the distance between board and coach increased when BCB higher-ups lately began to interfere with team selection.

 Bangladesh Cricket Board President Nazmul Hassan confirmed receiving a letter of resignation from the coach during their recent tour to South Africa. They have not accepted the letter yet. In 2016, Hathurusingha wanted to resign but had convinced him to stay on. Reports say he is now expected to return to Bangladesh on November 15.

Under Hathurusingha, Bangladesh cricket made significant strides. They reached the semi-finals of this year’s Champions Trophy—their first appearance in a semi-final of a global tournament—and also beat India, South Africa. They beat England and Australia at home in Test cricket and also Sri Lanka in a Test series at home to level the two-match series 1-1.

Hathurusinghe is one of the highest paid coaches in world cricket and the Sunday Times learns SLC is willing to offer him a lucrative pay package, much higher than what SLC had paid previously, if the former Sri Lanka opener is willing to accept.

Hathurusingha was groomed to take over as head coach when he was drafted in to the national team as “shadow coach” but a disagreement between the then board’s interim committee head DS de Silva and him saw Hathurusingha migrating to Australia. Then national team skipper Kumar Sangakkara wrote a letter pleading the board to retain the coach given his contributions to the team but no interest was taken. In Australia, he had a brief stint with the New South Wales cricket team before moving to Bangladesh in July 2013.