BCB's time to right the wrong
While a number of issues will be on the agenda at the Bangladesh Cricket Board's headquarters in the board meeting today afternoon, none will top the discussion between BCB president Nazmul Hassan Papon and coach Shane Jurgensen regarding the latter's resignation.
The president is scheduled to meet Jurgensen at 11:30 before going on to meet his board of directors.
While the word around Mirpur is that the Australian is unlikely to reverse his decision, the BCB is likely to make one last attempt to clear the air with the 38-year-old. Jurgensen tendered his resignation last week following reports in the media quoting an anonymous BCB director that the board, understandably disappointed with the Tigers' performance in the Asia Cup and the ICC World T20, was looking for a new coach.
BCB directors, Jalal Yunus and Akram Khan had described the decision as 'emotional' and stated that there was no official move to send Jurgensen out. The president had earlier told The Daily Star that, while he would not force Jurgensen to stay, he would reassert the fact that there was no official decision taken. He then criticised the board director's move to make such statements to the media.
There has been plenty said regarding the Australian's resignation in the past week. Some BCB officials have said that the Australian should not have resigned based on mere media reports while a few others reckon that it's time to bring on a local coach.
However, a majority of the board are for keeping Jurgensen until his contract ends in 2015. The president himself had stated that it would be 'difficult' to find a head coach for Bangladesh with the World Cup just nine months away.
Speaking on anonymity, a board director told The Daily Star that he believed keeping Jurgensen would be 'the best possible solution' to the problem.
“At this point of time keeping Jurgensen will be the best possible solution for Bangladesh's cricket. There are just nine months remaining for the World Cup and it's not the best of ideas to name an interim local coach for the biggest ICC event.
“The other aspect here is that, whether he stays or not, the separation between the coach and the BCB should be done in a peaceful manner so that the board's image is not hurt,” he said.
From the recent events that have taken place, it is quite obvious that the BCB is not in the position that they wanted to be nine months before a mega event. Apart from Jurgensen, Richard McInnes and David Dwyer, two other vital members of their staff resigned in April and at the moment it seems the BCB is in a thick soup.
The manner in which the entire scenario was handled by the cricket operations chairman Akram Khan can also be questioned in this case. Instead of taking a more pro-active role and trying to get to the bottom of why the Australian resigned, the former Bangladesh captain merely described it as an 'emotional' decision and left the verdict to the president.
Jurgensen in his resignation letter had said that he could work with the national team until the India series in June. However, with the three-match ODI series still not confirmed, if the Australian sticks to his decision, he might as well leave without another international game.
And if that happens, the board will have to literally rebuild its entire team management from scratch, a programme that the BCB can ill afford at this crucial juncture.
Comments