BCB eyeing Mckenzie for full-time role

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) is eyeing to rope in South African Neil McKenzie as the full-time batting coach, BCB CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury informed yesterday. McKenzie is currently working as the limited-overs batting consultant for Bangladesh.

The South African was appointed by Bangladesh in July last year and was contracted till the 2019 ICC World Cup, which ended in July.

Bangladesh finished eighth in the 10-team tournament and the BCB made drastic changes in the aftermath, deciding to part ways with head coach Steve Rhodes and bowling coach Courtney Walsh.

However, BCB were satisfied with McKenzie and decided to extend his contract. He missed the tour of Sri Lanka immediately after the World Cup, but later joined the Tigers for the ongoing T20I tri-series.

It has been a long time since the Tigers had a batting coach in longer-version cricket and the BCB is looking forward to roping in McKenzie, but the 43-year-old is yet to decide about the new role.

“We have asked him about the role as we don’t have a lot of commitments in the Future Tours Programme with the white ball in the coming days. We are trying to rope him [McKenzie] in as our full-time batting coach but that is not finalised yet. So far, he seemed positive but we can’t say anything officially until the deal is finalised,’’ Nizamuddin told reporters yesterday.

McKenzie played 58 Tests, 64 ODIs and two T20Is for South Africa and worked as the batting consultant for South Africa after his retirement in 2009.