McInnes blamed the structure for Bangladesh’s poor international performance
Bangladesh National Cricket Academy (BNCA) head coach Richard McInnes will cut his tie with Bangladesh cricket by end of this month as he will be joining a sports software company in Brisbane. The Australian, who played a crucial role in grooming up players like Shakib al Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim in the past, will be leaving his current designation three months before his two-year contract expires in July.
McInnes’ first stint with Bangladesh cricket as High Performance (HP) coach and Under-19 team mentor between 2003 and 2005 was a success which prompted the Bangladesh Cricket Board to hire him for the second time after another Australian Ross Turner had left the job in October 2011. However, the experience this time around was very frustrating for McInnes his work did not progress as planned.
“It is very frustrating, I like to work hard and make a difference. I am not angry, and I still think Bangladesh cricket will get better,” said McInnes to Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
“It [the second time] was similar to what I had expected. I knew it would be challenging. I had hoped to have more influence on the system, not just players. 2013 was a tough time to work in Bangladesh. Not much was done due to the political situation, so it is no one’s fault. It was difficult to achieve what I wanted to. We haven’t been able to bring a lot of players here but we have had some success with players that we were able to get to the NCA,” he said.
Last time around it was the 39-year old’s plan of setting up a HP unit which paid huge dividend. Players cashed in from the experience and most also made it to the national team. But in 2013 there was little to work with as the BNCA was deserted for almost six months while the long-lasting drama-filled Dhaka Premier League also spilled water of planning a schedule.
“I actually think we achieved more last time. We were starting at a lower base but we achieved more last time. Maybe that’s because we worked in BKSP where we didn’t have to ask permission for everything.
“Here [at the Academy in Mirpur], the facility and opportunity is fantastic but there are a lot more complications. It is understandable because lots of team are training here like the senior team, women’s team, age-group and club teams and international teams. In BKSP, it was just us. Programmes were run easily,” he added.
McInnes, who worked small hours with Robiul Islam, Taskin Ahmed and Mominul Haque during his current stay, blamed the structure for Bangladesh’s poor international performance and said the Tigers should have been a mid-table team by now had the process he left been continued.
“We had [Robiul Islam] Shiblu in for a block of time before he went to Zimbabwe. Taskin Ahmed was with us and he went on to play in the World T20 and it went well. Mominul Haque was also with us, but we haven’t had a full programme at any point. That has been frustrating, but it wasn’t lot different than what I had expected.
“When I left last time, I thought if they continue to progress at that rate, they would be mid-table in 5-7 years in the different formats. There has been some good players coming through, but in terms of overall system and structure to sustain consistent success, there hasn’t been much progress,” he said.
Shakib had earlier raised concerns of not having enough cricketers in the pipeline but his HP guru thought, “I think the youth pipeline is okay, but as soon as they come out of the under-19 programme, there is a big hole. No one is there to put pressure on Shakib [al Hasan], or [Sohag] Gazi. Domestic cricket in every country is weaker than international cricket but our gap is bigger than most.”
The Australian also spent few months as the U-19 coach last year but he informed it wasn’t his job and he did it because the delay in the DPL and the failure in running a programme at the BNCA left him with no other option.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
