The Bangladesh Cricket Board Coach has renewed its contract with Head Coach Chandika Hathurusingha, extending his stay with the Tigers until the 2019 World Cup.
The Sri Lankan coach has already started his new term as BCB President Nazmul Hassan broke the news after a board meeting on Sunday.
The BCB, which had earlier hinted at the extension of Hathurusingha’s tenure, also extended the terms of assistant coach Ruwan Kalpage, trainer Mario Villavarayan and fielding coach Richard Halsall.
Although terms are extended by two years but, keeping the ODI World Cup in England and Wales in sight, the board decided to propose three years to the staff.
Following BCB’s decision to devise a two-tier selection process at the end of last month, Hathurusingha will also play the role of a selector in his new tenure.
The board announced Hathurusingha’s appointment on May 19, 2014. Although his two-year contract began from Jul 1 that year, he had started working with the team sometime before.
Bangladesh had Hathurusingha at the helm when India toured Bangladesh in June that year.
With Hathurusingha in charge, Bangladesh won three Tests, losing three others while four ended in a draw. In these two years, they won 18 ODIs out of 29 while one of them was abandoned.
Bangladesh won five ODI series on the bounce during his tenure and they also reached the World Cup quarterfinals for the first time in Australia and New Zealand last year.
The Twenty20 format had been a puzzle to Bangladesh, but under the guidance of Hathurusingha, Mashrafe Bin Mortaza and his men have started finding their feet in the shortest format.
They reached the final of the first-ever T20 Asia Cup earlier this year, beating Sri Lanka and Pakistan on their way. Then they put up a brave fight against India and Australia in the Super 10s of the World Twenty20.
Bangladesh had bagged two victories in 22 T20 Internationals, lost 11 while two had been abandoned.
The 47-year-old Hathurusingha, a former Sri Lanka allrounder, played 26 Tests and 35 ODIs in national colours.
Source: Bd news24
