Bangladesh head coach Chandika Hathurusinghe has been suspended by its cricket board (BCB) on disciplinary grounds. His suspension is for 48 hours and after that, will be terminated immediately. The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has also served him a show-cause notice. Hathurusinghe has been accused of slapping a player during the ODI World Cup in India last year. Former West Indies cricketer Phil Simmons has been announced as the interim head coach after the suspension of Hathurusinghe. Before this, Simmons had also coached Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, and West Indies, and he is going to lead the team till the 2025 Champions Trophy.
Hathurusinghe’s exit marks an unsatisfactory end to his second stint as head coach, particularly marked by terrible performances for the team in the 2023 ODI World Cup and the 2024 T20 World Cup. He assumed office in January 2023 with high aspirations to lead Bangladesh cricket forward exactly like his first tenure from 2014 to 2017.During his first tenure, the team indeed made incredible strides, particularly in white-ball games, winning lots of key titles, such as an automatic qualification for the 2019 ODI World Cup after an awesome show in the 2017 Champions Trophy. Simmons' recent stint in the coaching setup was with his own West Indies side whom he helmed from 2019 till the end of the Australian tour this year. His immediate assignment will be the two-match Test series at home against South Africa this month.
