Hathurusingha plays down tension with BCB

Bangladesh coach Chandika Hathurusingha has said prolonging the slanging match with his colleagues at the BCB would do a disservice to the players. Rather, much of his focus is on seeing the new opening pair get into the groove in the first two ODIs against Pakistan.

Hathurusingha's comments on the World Cup squad selection, before and after the tournament, drew a sharp riposte from Naimur Rahman, the chairman of BCB's cricket operations committee. All matters of the Bangladesh team are handled by this department, making Naimur Hathurusingha's direct superior in the board.

Naimur had called Hathurusingha "immature" for talking about selection matters in the media, and said he had asked the coach not to bypass him before going to the board president for any matters. It was also reported earlier in the week that Hathurusingha hadn't attended a coordination meeting of the cricket operations department, and had instead sent the manager Khaled Mahmud. A move that drew more criticism from Naimur, also a BCB director.

When asked if he would send Naimur a reply, Hathurusingha said it was time to give the limelight back to the players, whose success was in danger of getting short-changed.

"It is a very technical issue," Hathurusingha said. "I cannot talk much about it. It is unfortunate that the team is doing well but these issues are diverting what the team is doing. I think it is time for us to focus on the team that is doing well, rather than the attention and time spent on some other things.

"I don't want to play whatever happens in my office in public. So that's not a cricketing question. We need to focus on the team doing well. By talking about these unnecessary things, I don't think I am doing justice to the players."

With his shields up, Hathurusingha was more comfortable answering questions relating to cricketing issues. Bangladesh's main concern, as it has been over the last several years, remains a settled opening partnership. This time they have added the uncapped Rony Talukdar in place of Imrul Kayes who played the last two matches of the World Cup, with Anamul Haque having not recovered from his shoulder injury.

Since Hathurusingha took over in June, there have been three different opening pairs with Tamim Iqbal and Anamul playing 12 of the 16 matches during this period. The coach last month said he preferred to protect his middle order with a top-heavy batting line-up.

"I won't say [having a new opening pair] is frustrating but I would like to have a settled opening pair," he said. "It is up to the players to grab the opportunities which they get. We are all looking forward to the perfect combination. Rony (Talukdar) is in the team on merit. He scored lot of runs in both forms of the game. He deserves a place."

Hathurusingha defended Tamim when asked whether the left-hander was a cause for concern. Tamim made scores of 5 and 10 in the BCL one-day tournament and on Wednesday, playing for the BCB XI against Pakistan, he made only 9. Hathurusingha said his last big innings, 95 against Scotland, hadn't come too long ago.

"Tamim is probably as disappointed as anyone else," Hathurusingha said. "He would love to score more runs. In Australia we saw it was tough for openers of any team. He scored a match-winning innings for us not so long ago, two matches ago.

"He scored 95 two matches ago. We played New Zealand and India after that. If we judge someone by two innings, it is a very difficult world we are living in. The other guy is in form with runs. We have other options as well."