'Don't judge a book by its cover' - Jurgensen

Shane Jurgensen is leaving Bangladesh this weekend after a year as head coach. Right till the end and even after his paperwork and other formalities have been completed at the BCB, he has stood by his players, or rather, his erstwhile players. He admitted they have erred, especially in recent times, but felt their approach is right and will help them build on their potential.

"They are a very exciting cricket team with settled performers and young players," Jurgensen told ESPNcricinfo. "They will make mistakes on and off the field. They have the right attitude and are working hard. I think the last three-four months will be a learning experience for them. I would have had a problem if I had seen them training not as hard but I often hear that we were training harder than other teams. Yet, when we were in the park, it didn't quite happen [this year]."

Some viewed this backing of the players as Jurgensen's weakness too, particularly this year when Bangladesh lost 15 out of 18 matches, all played at home. Several players who were key components in the last two years were short of runs and wickets during important stretches between January and April. Jurgensen has been known to back these players, doing the small things to make everyone comfortable within the dressing room in a bid to calm down the environment, which can be difficult amid continued losses.

"It is a young team that was playing in a pressurised situation and with bigger expectation at home. There might be a team ranked around us and there will be an opportunity to beat that team, however, there has to be a nice balance between winning and losing, and the development of the team. As a team ranked No 9 in the world, we have to keep pushing the boundaries."

During Jurgensen's time, Bangladesh started off as a settled team and started to tackle off-field distractions better than before. Jurgensen's appointment as an interim happened mainly because of Richard Pybus' sudden resignation, a time of chaos. He had to wade through a number of injuries to bring the best out of the team in Sri Lanka last year, yet before the tour to Zimbabwe, lack of training and a less than hospitable host ended up in a lost ODI series and drawn Test and T20 series.

Against New Zealand, Bangladesh drew both Tests without dominating for too long but they did alright. It was enough to encourage the players to extend themselves in the ODI series, where they cruised to a 3-0 win. There were slight concerns about form and fitness throughout this successful period and at the turn of the year, things started to go downhill quickly. The team started to lose by big and very small margins and the number of off-field incidents piled up. It took a toll on everyone, and showed that the desire to wade through distractions was not present.

Matters came to a head when a few BCB directors said that they were looking for a new batting-oriented coach. Jurgensen felt slighted. He called it the last straw, but denied it was an emotional decision to quit, as suggested by the BCB.

So when he was asked whether the BCB are on the right track in how they are running cricket, and their expectations from the team, Jurgensen took his time answering. He said that improvement will only happen if cricket is given top priority.

"It is really important to continue to strive and work together. There has to be continued development from the academy, domestic cricket, all the way to the national team. There has to be a goal of everyone working hard and pushing. It is a potentially important period in the next few years.

"I think priority has to be cricket. Get whatever is needed and get everything in place. That is going to be important."

Earlier too, Jurgensen had said that his desire for more control was overlooked by the BCB. "[When I resigned] I have spoken about a cricket decision. Sometimes I felt that the cricket side of things, like I wanted to happen, didn't quite happen. Without going into too many details, I would have liked a bit more control with what was happening around the team.

"It has been building up for a little while, and I thought it was time to let it go and give the team a fresh look. I have mentioned that I would like this or that to happen. I think there were outside things that were out of my or the board's control. It happened in late 2013. That's why I say there is no one to really blame. It is a series of unfortunate events to happen."

What also contributed to Jurgensen's exit were the recent controversies, which started with the board's sudden decision to name Mashrafe Mortaza the T20 captain in February in the absence of the injured Mushfiqur Rahim when Tamim Iqbal was the designated vice-captain. It led to unease among the senior players.

Next was Shakib Al Hasan's obscene gesture on live TV from the dressing room, which got him banned for three games, and derailed Bangladesh's Asia Cup campaign. There was also the case of Mushfiqur criticizing the new chief selector Faruque Ahmed for making changes in the Asia Cup squad without consulting him.

Further, Jurgensen had to manage the players and the team environment during a time of high intensity on the field, when Bangladesh slipped from very good positions.

"It [the controversies] was very tiring," Jurgensen said. "I think there was a period of time there, whenever we were starting to get into a roll, small or big things started to become bigger than it needed to be.

"I think it was just the way things escalated. There were gap of communications in few areas. The management of it was very tiring. Coach is all about yourself, and there are so many other things to manage. All of a sudden something happens off the field, you have to manage that. And then there is also the cricket."

Jurgensen had said that his record during 2013 should be enough to suggest he could get the players to perform. The perception that he is too nice a guy to go hard on the players was dismissed by him.

"It is a never-ending question mark because I have a smile on my face. All I can say is, 'Don't judge a book by its cover'. I am a very competitive man. There were two series wins, drawn ODI series for the first time outside home and four drawn Tests. Of course there is need for improvement in T20s, but I think everything else speaks for itself. I will just leave it at that."

Jurgensen's values were essentially to treat his players like adults and international stars, not less than that, because that's what all of them are. He wanted to back them to the point where the player did not feel unwanted or unfairly treated even when he was dropped. When the same stopped happening from the powers that be, he understood this was not the place where he wanted to continue.